Unspeakable Things
by Darth Marrs
Summary: Formerly Defense for Two. Adopted from Perspicacity with permission. They thought Lockhart was a fraud. They were wrong; he was their guide into a world of danger, adventure, intrigue and other Unspeakable Things.
1. Once Upon a Time

**Unspeakable Things**

A FanFic by Darth Marrs

**Author's Note Revised 10/4/2011**: This story was originally titled Defense for Two, and was adopted with permission from "Detention in Defense", a one-shot by Perspicacity. What started out as an early-year story has turned into a multi-year epic (200,000+ words) that moved far beyond the original premise, hence the title change.

Like all HP fanfic, this story is based on characters and plot owned by J. K. Rowling, Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books, Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Warnings: This is a sometimes violent story which will later also have content of a sexual nature (when the kids are older). There is also in the latter half of the story non-consensual heterosexual activity enacted against a male character. There will also be a f/f/m relationship much later in the story. It is obviously intended for adult readers only. I hate warnings such as these, but given that Perspicacity's original was more of a kid fic, it is appropriate to let people know this story is not.

Posting will continue weekly as time permits until the story is complete.

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**Chapter One: Once Upon a Time**

_Godric's Hollow, 3 August, 1980_

The party was long since over, such as it was. Sirius and Peter were both passed out drunk in the living room with Sirius's flame of the week on the floor by his side. Vectra or Vector, James thought her name was, though it was hard to keep track of how many women his friend went through.

James Potter stood on the edge of the living room and for the very first time resented his friends. At least Moony had the graciousness to go home and leave the two exhausted parents to their privacy. But even as he let the resentment flare, he quickly pushed it down again. Remus, Sirius and Peter were the very best friends he had ever had or could ever even imagine. They celebrated the first Marauder birth as jubilantly as James did himself.

Peter even wept a little when he got to hold Harry for the first time.

Harry.

James bit his lip a little in an effort to hold the rush of emotion at bay; _his_ son, _his_ boy, _his_ little Harry.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked over at an obviously exhausted wife. "I finally got him down," Lily whispered. She smiled a little as she adjusted her bra. "That boy already eats like his father. I swear he sucked me dry."

"Lucky little bugger," James said as he eyed his wife's swollen assets. The only thing that kept his hands off them was the knowledge they were sore and tender.

"Don't even think about it," Lily said in confirmation of his thoughts. She turned and looked at their three guests. "James?"

"Yeah, love?"

"Have you thought about what Albus told us? You were gone for almost five hours before the party. Did you go in?"

James's brows fell into a furrow as he remembered the headmaster's visit yesterday. "I went in," he confirmed quietly. "I checked with Control, and he confirmed it. The prophecy was legitimate. There are two potential targets—Harry and Frank and Alice's boy, Neville."

"Not calling them Oeagrus and Calliope anymore?"

"Calliope is a pretty enough name for Alice, and she does have a lovely singing voice, but Oeagrus? What was Control thinking when he assigned Frank's name?"

"Has Adonis done the Miltventor Test on Neville yet?"

"He tested 85th percentile; above average certainly, but not extraordinarily so. Frank and Alice are honestly a little disappointed in his readings. They're both above 90th each."

"James, it's rare for two purebloods to produce a child higher ranked than themselves. Alice is a half-blood and Frank's score was just a fluke. But 85th percentile is still good."

"True. Molly Weasley's youngest boy scored a 46th percentile."

Both of them heard the subtle tapping at their door. "Finally," James sighed. With a nod to his wife, James cast a sleeping charm on his friends and then opened the door.

The figure on the other side was completely hidden by a cloak with a heavy cowl that was spelled to show nothing but shadow. Until, that is, the man pulled the cowl back to show a young face with well-coiffed blond hair and sparkling blue eyes.

"Helios, Selene," the man said with a charming smile that quite ensured his nights would rarely be spent alone, even if he were not already married.

"Adonis," Lily said with a patient sigh. "Took you long enough."

The smile faded. "Remus and Romulus are dead."

Lily gasped while James paled-he knew Adonis did not refer to his friend Remus. "What happened?"

"Dumbledore happened," Adonis said with a growl. "Bloody fool sent a pack of idiots into the middle of our operation. We were on the verge of knocking the whole Lestrange clan out when your precious Order members came in tripping over their own feet throwing stunners to counter the Death Eater's killing curses. Gideon and Fabian had little choice but to play the part of loyal Order members and did the same. It was a no win situation. Control gave the order to retreat, but by then You Know Who showed up. He threw up an anti-apparition and anti-portkey ward in under a minute and had the whole lot of us trapped with twenty wizards. Aphrodite and I managed to fight our way out with Persephone and Hades, but we lost the twins. I swear Helios that Headmaster of yours is going to end up getting us all killed. Control is very seriously considering taking him out."

"He won't," James said with certainty. "Dumbledore is the only Sport we have right now, and the only one You Know Who fears."

"Why can't we just say the bastard's name?" Lily demanded with a huff.

"Control confirmed the taboo," Adonis said with an apologetic shrug. "It takes a lot of power to cast a taboo as broad as You Know Who did, but it's strong enough that if you say his name, even behind wards, he will know where you are. We've lost two agents because of it already, and the Ministry has lost eight aurors."

Lily paled. "He truly cast a Taboo on his own name? But that type of spell…"

"Requires blood rites using a magical child's sacrifice," Adonis finished. "Yes, we know. We suspect it was the Hastings girl. She was abducted four days before Control confirmed the Taboo was real."

Adonis took a long ragged breath before he nodded to the three bodies in the living area. "Are they out?"

"Silenced and sleeping."

"And young Harry?"

"Sleeping on the first floor."

"Then let's do it."

The three of them walked up the stairs. When Sirius, Peter or even Remus walked on the stairs, they creaked loudly. When Lily, James and Adonis walked up the stairs, they made nary a sound. In fact, James and Lily moved very differently around Adonis than they did in the presence of their friends, or Albus Dumbledore.

A bluebell flame cast a gentle, soothing blue glow over the nursery when the three of them entered. Four-day old Harry Potter lay sprawled on his back in the center of the cot. Through his thin eye lids all three could see his eyes moving as his lips trembled. Occasionally one hand would jerk for no reason.

"So small," Adonis whispered.

"You and Aphrodite should have one," James said. "He's been a miracle for us."

"Dite and I are happy just practicing for now," Adonis said with a wry grin. He reached into his large robe and pulled out a hoop of gold studded with pink diamonds. He tapped the hoop with his wand and then held it directly over Harry for a moment. When he let go, the hoop continued to hover.

A soft pink glow began to clash with the blue of their magical nightlight. The pink light concentrated in a cone that fell around the still sleeping baby. The light continued to strengthen in intensity until it began to blink. The blinking continued for five seconds before the hoop made a light tinkle, like a delicate bell.

The pink light inverted and began to rise in an inch-wide column.

"Here we go," Adonis said. He casted the measuring charm and beside the column,. a blue scale in integers of five appeared.

"Well, he's definitely above average," James noted.

"He should be, we were both above 99th Percentile and I'm muggleborn," Lily said.

The column continued to rise. "James," Lily whispered.

The column continued passed the top of the scale. "Merlin," James said.

The column continued, now twice the height of the scale, until it met the ceiling and both the pink column and the blue scale beside it disappeared. "I've done this test myself on dozens of babies," James whispered. "I've never seen this before."

"The last one was 31st December 1923, Tom Marvolo Riddle," Adonis said. "Before that was 3 August 1881-Albus Dumbledore."

The two Potters stared at Adonis in shock. "You mean Harry's a…" Lily couldn't finish.

Adonis nodded and completed the thought for her. "Harry is a Sport. He's completely off the scale magically. With a good environment and solid training, he could easily become a threat to Voldemort and Dumbledore."

Lily sought James's hand with her own. "The Prophecy," she whispered.

"There can be little doubt now," Adonis agreed. "James, you and Lily are on permanent detached duty. Your primary role now is to ensure that Harry is kept safe. I'd put you under the Fidelius myself right now, but we all know the questions that would raise. Instead, tell Dumbledore you've agreed to his suggestions."

"Sirius will serve as our secret keeper," James said confidently.

"Of course he would, and everyone would know it too," Adonis noted. "James, I know he's your friend, but Sirius is not a stable personality. He has too much emotional baggage and we know for a fact he talks in his sleep. Considering the number of ears that pass through his bed, that's a recipe for disaster. You might want to consider Lupin or Pettigrew instead."

"We have some concerns about Remus," Lily said sadly. "You Know Who's been making inroads with the werewolves. I can't imagine Remus would join him, but he might be under a lot of pressure we don't know about."

"Pettigrew it is, then," Adonis said. He looked carefully from Harry to James and finally to Lily. "Helios, Selene, I trust there is no need to warn you not to say anything about Harry's Miltventor score. The official record will be sealed as a state secret in the Department of Mysteries. If anyone asked, he scored a ninety. That's what will be publicly available. That is high enough to brag about in public and may excuse what will most assuredly be some incredible bursts of accidental magic. In the meantime, get Dumbledore to cast that charm. We need to be as proactive as possible."

"We will," James said. He took the other man's hand in a firm shake. "Thank you, Adonis."

"It is my pleasure, my friends. Dite and I always knew you would make incredible parents."He hugged them both. While they exchanged their farewells, no one noticed the scurrying rat-sized shadow that disappeared from just inside the door. When they returned down stairs, Black and his companion were still in the same place, while Peter had rolled onto his side and was snoring loudly.

"Be well," Adonis gave them both one last look before he disappeared.

When he was gone, Lily stepped into her husband's embrace. "James," she whispered, "we've engaged You Know Who himself three times. We've fought his death eaters as both Unspeakables and as Order members. We've fought his supporters and allies in three different countries. In all those battles, I've never been so scared."The last word ended in a half-swallowed sob.

James hugged her closer. "I know," he said. "Come on; let's get some sleep while we can. We'll floo Albus tomorrow and tell him we accept his offer. Peter's a great friend, and no one will suspect him as our secret keeper."

The two walked silently back up the stairs. Only when they were gone and the gentle click of their closing bedroom door drifted down to the ground floor did Peter Pettigrew sit up. In the dim light of the kitchen lamp, his cheeks glistened. He looked back down at Sirius, then lay back down once more and stared into the darkness of the kitchen while he wept in silence.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

_Ottery St. Catchpole, 15 August 1981_

Molly Weasley looked harried; it was the only way to describe the mother of seven.

In a crowded den of a too-small house, Arthur and Molly Weasley held their newborn baby girl while around them ran ten-year-old Bill, eight-year-old Charlie, four-year-old Percy ("I'll be five in eleven days!"), three-year-olds Fred and George ("Look, Mama! Gnomes catch fire!"), and the youngest son, Ron, who was over eighteen months old and still had not taken his first steps. He was currently being held by his older brother Bill while trying to eat his foot.

Arthur had dark rings under his eyes, proof not only of the financial pressure of trying to support seven kids, but also the added pressure from his job at a floundering Ministry and his second position as a member of the Order of the Phoenix.

But that was nothing compared to the exhausted, haggard look of Molly Weasley, who just ten years ago was a young, vivacious, buxom young woman who caught the eye of nearly half her class. Now seven births had added permanent girth to her already flared hips, and rings and lines to her face. The deaths of her brothers left her heartbroken and constantly frightened for her family.

Aphrodite, looking at the chaos that was the Weasley home, vowed that she and Adonis would never, ever, have children. She absolutely despised the nasty little buggers.

"Dorcas, so good of you to come," Arthur said. "Please, have a seat. Oh, yes." He realized there was no place to sit and used a weak banishing charm to clear off a rickety wooden chair. "You've met Molly, of course. And we have the distinct honour of introducing our daughter, Ginevra Molly Weasley."

"A seventh child?" Aphrodite said. She never cared for her given name of Dorcas Meadows, and did not think of herself by any other name but the one assigned to her by Control.

"She is indeed," Arthur said. "For some reason, I was almost sure I was going to have a seventh son."

"You're a seventh son yourself, are you not?" Aphrodite asked.

"I am indeed. Of course, my siblings…well, you know."

She did know. Most of Arthur Weasley's brothers were squibs or died young. He lost three brothers to the dragon pox outbreak in the late fifties. Still, the seventh child of a seventh child, boy or girl, was arithmantically significant. The fact that the child was also the first girl child born to the Weasley family in three generations was also quite significant.

"Well, let's have a look, then." She took out the Miltventor gauge and activated it with a tap of her wand. All the children stopped their ongoing campaign of terror to watch as the pink column began to rise. Aphrodite saw immediately that the column was already past the ninetieth percentile.

She threw up a false scale, since the Weasleys were not authorized to see scales above the 99th percentile. Aphrodite herself was 99.2, the highest percentile of any member of her family ever. But this child…though the Weasleys were seeing a different set of numbers, what Aphrodite saw was truly astounding. The column finally stopped at the 99.7 mark. Ginevra Molly Weasley was one of the most powerful witches to have been born in a century.

"Well look at that!" Arthur said.

Aphrodite blinked, trying to hide her own shock.

"Yes, quite impressive," she managed to say.

"I'll say. Look Bill, she's right up there with you!"

"What does 75th mean?" Bill demanded.

"It means that you and Ginny are among the top quarter of magical potential in the entire magical world," Aphrodite explained to the handsome boy.

"Cool," Bill said with a nod. "I'd better take care of her, then."

"Yes," Aphrodite agreed. "You'd better."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

_York, 31, October 1981_

Albus Dumbledore liked the sound of his own voice.

Aphrodite tried to hide her impatience as the old wizard rambled on and on about Voldemort's motives and recruiting. Though she had to admit his intelligence was surprisingly good, he took five times as long as necessary to explain the tactical situation. She could have summarized it in two words: Not Good.

Millicent Bagnold's election to Minister only happened when her predecessor, Augustus Rookwood, was killed in the middle of Diagon Alley by his own teen-age daughter, who was acting under the Imperius Curse. She killed herself shortly after when she realized what she had done.

Bagnold, Dumbledore told them, was proving to be much less open to suggestions and cooperation from the Order, though she had at least agreed not to try and arrest Order members.

Aphrodite knew of course that Bagnold was a tough-as-nails former Unspeakable and licensed barrister responsible for Control's own initial training, and was well aware of the mistakes the Chief Warlock had caused in his own ongoing crusade against Voldemort. The only thing that kept the Ministry assassins away was the fact that, bumbling aside, Albus Dumbledore was still an extraordinary powerful wizard.

She let her eyes wander away from the Headmaster to view the other Order members. As had been the case lately, Helios and Selene were missing. However, Sirius Black was there with his latest girlfriend, a woman named Septima who met the required attractiveness but seemed a little too intelligent for Black's usual sort of women. Given his history with intelligent women—such as his year-long debacle with Amelia Bones—she doubted he would have been willing to try again.

Remus Lupin lounged nearby, listening intently. Between the other two sat Peter Pettigrew. Aphrodite was about to continue her survey of the other members when she noticed something odd about the shorter man's expression. The Headmaster was describing Voldemort's overseas recruiting drives. When the old wizard said Voldemort's name, Pettigrew's right eye twitched. If it was not for the fact that Dumbledore was the only person who could afford to disregard the Taboo, she would never have noticed.

Aphrodite was trained in the interpretation of body language. In fact, among all his agents even Control admitted she was the best. She knew from two years of study that Peter Pettigrew was a rather timid man who was usually content to let himself be dragged along in the wake of his friends. However, in all that time she's never noticed any unusual facial tics or overly nervous gestures.

The tic was new, and was keyed specifically off the Dark Lord's name.

Peter, she knew, was the Potter's secret keeper—the Potters, whose son was a confirmed Sport, and who was one of two whose birth met the conditions of a prophecy that would put him directly against Voldemort.

She felt a stabbing cold sensation in her chest, but fought hard to keep it still as her mind immediately began analyzing all options and courses of action. The first and foremost priority was to determine if Pettigrew was under the Imperius or if he had turned. he kept her face a steely mask as Albus droned on. The meeting started at noon and it was already well past afternoon tea.

Finally, close to dinner, the meeting adjourned. The Order members began to disburse from Edgar Bones' stately home, which was under the Fidelius charm and served as the headquarters of the Order.

She saw Black and Lupin stand and naturally Pettigrew started to follow. She had to act quickly. "Peter?" she said.

All three men turned at the sound of her voice, and she saw them examining her as all men did. Though her given name was atrocious at best, she knew she was a beautiful woman, with shoulder-length almond hair, alluring hazel eyes and a long, luscious neck that Adonis loved to nuzzle for hours on end when she let him. The fact that she was wearing a dress with a low-slung bodice to accentuate her respectable bosom was not lost on the three.

"Er, yes, Dorcas?" Peter asked with a near audible swallow.

"I was wondering if you could walk me back to the apparation point?" she said. "I'd like to ask you something personal."

Black gave his friend a leering grin before Remus elbowed him. Septima rolled her eyes in barely concealed impatience.

"Of course," Peter said, a little too quickly.

"We'll leave you two to it, then," Sirius said, leering suggestively once more. "Peter, Ms. Meadows." With nods to each, Black finally left. Dumbledore had already gone as well, as had the other members. Aphrodite fell in beside the pudgy wizard and walked slowly. She timed her steps with his and walked right next to him, giving him an illusion of intimacy without actually touching him.

"How are James and Lily doing?" she asked.

His left eye ticked even as he smiled. "Oh, they're fine. Harry's quite the young wizard. He's already had a burst of accidental magic—never heard of such a thing so young. James said he made a book blow up. Guess he thought some of the pictures were too scary."

If she did not know Harry was a sport, Aphrodite would have been shocked. "He's a little young for such things, isn't he?"

"James said Harry scored high on his Miltventor test. Not surprising—James and Lily are both quite powerful."

"They are," Aphrodite agreed. They left the house and stepped into the cool early evening night. She could see the last of the Order members apparating out. They were nearly to the ward line themselves. "So tell me, Peter, have you already betrayed the Potters or are you planning to do it soon?"

His eyes gave it all away. They widened and he paled and gasped for air as if struck by a bludger. He tried to reach for his wand, but Aphrodite was expecting that move and easily slapped it away. She then spun about and slapped his face. She could hit and hit strongly, but there was nothing like a good, stinging slap to get someone's attention. "Traitor!" she snarled. "What were you going to do, Pettigrew? What was the plan?'

The man desperately tried to use his bulk to barrel past her. Aphrodite let herself fall back against his rush even as she pulled her legs underneath him. As she rolled onto her back with Pettigrew on top, she kicked out with all her might. The wizard let out a surprised yelp as he somersaulted over her and slammed onto his back.

Aphrodite flawlessly rolled from her back to her feet in one smooth motion. She kicked out the scrambling man's feet to land him on his stomach, and then stepped around with her wand out. His wand was several feet away.

"Talk," she hissed.

"I had no choice," Pettigrew said. He started to weep like a blubbering child. "He has my sister! He was going to kill her! I had no choice."

"What did you do, Peter?"

Pettigrew sobbed. "I…I gave him the secret. He knows where James and Lily are, and he knows about Harry."

Aphrodite fought to control the shaking in her wand. "Knows what about Harry?"

"That Harry is a Sport. He's going to attack tonight."

"Then there's time!" Aphrodite said.

"No there isn't," Peter said sadly. "Voldemort, my lord, hear me!" He lifted his arms and allowed the sleeve to his left arm to roll back and expose the Dark Mark.

Aphrodite's heart literally skipped a beat when she heard the tell-tale pops of multiple apparation behind her. She turned and stared at the line of black robes that stood on the edge of the wards. In their midst stood one wizard without a silver mask. His face was aristocratic and might have been handsome once. Now his skin had a strange sheen to it, which to muggles would be a sign of too much plastic surgery. Magically, though, Aphrodite saw the signs of dark soul magic.

"Hello, Ms. Meadows," Voldemort said with a sibilant smile. "Or should I call you Aphrodite?"

She braced herself for the fight of her life, but in her shock, she completely dismissed Peter Pettigrew. Thus the wizard who scored barely a 35th percentile on the Miltventor got the drop on one who scored over 99th percentile and cast a _petrificus_ hex at her back.

Voldemort's smile seemed almost grandfatherly as he shattered the wards of the Bones home with a mere flick of his wand and walked casually up the path. She realized then that he must have had the secret of the Bones' Fidelius charm as well to even see her.

"It is unfortunate that you discovered Wormtail's secret," Voldemort said. "Even more unfortunate that we are on a tight schedule today. I'm sure my minions would have loved to show you how much they appreciate your efforts in the war. Alas, I have places to be, families to murder. So, Dorcas, or Aphrodite as you like it, I bid you adieu. _Avada Kedavra_."

Her last thoughts did not dwell on the pending deaths of her friends the Potters. She did not think about the treason of Peter Pettigrew. Aphrodite's last thought was what her beloved Adonis would look like when he learned of her death. _Oh my love, _she thought to herself as the green spell washed the life from her body.

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Thank you for reading.


	2. On the Hogwarts Express

**Author's Notes**: As stated previously, this story was originally titled Defense for Two and was adopted from Perspicacity's Detention In Defense with permission. I note this because this chapter and a portion of the next is almost wholly taken from the original. It is an admittedly short chapter, so I will post Chapter 3 next weekend, though after that expect chapters every two weeks.

Second, I've posted responses to reviews from Chapter One in my forums here on ff dot net. I specifically addressed what people can expect. While it starts out innocently enough, please be aware that this story contains a great deal of violence as the characters get older.

Finally, thanks to Mihir and my Yahoo group for beta reading!

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**Chapter Two: On the Hogwarts Express**

"Can I sit here with you, Luna?" Ginny Weasley asked. Her petite frame made a silhouette in the cabin doorway. A long, low whistle sounded as the Hogwarts Express readied its departure. This was her last hope—the twins were in a crowded cabin that could not possibly hold her, Percy was with the other prefects, and Ron had told her to scram to make room for his friends; Hermione and _him_.

"Of course, Ginevra," Luna said. She looked up from her half-finished cryptogram puzzle in The Quibbler and stared quizzically at her freckled friend. Ginny took a seat in the following silence, aware of the stare. She began fidgeting under Luna's large, unblinking eyes.

Finally the scrutiny ended and Luna returned her attention to the puzzle.

Ginny sighed in relief and looked out of the window as the train started to move out of the station. She lost track of time when, out of the blue, Luna said, "Are there two 'L's or three in tallyluber?" The blonde waif of a girl did not even bother looking up.

"Um, I don't know."

"Oh. Well, did you have toast for breakfast?"

Ginny blinked in confusion and suddenly remembered why she and Luna had stopped spending so much time together as girls. "Well, yes, I suppose I did."

"Okay, it must be three then. Thanks!" Luna hastily scribbled something onto the page before finally looking up at the redhead. "Is something the matter, Ginevra?" Her stare was more intense than before.

Ginny blinked in surprise. A small part of her mind—the part that constantly laughed at herself for her many foibles, wondered why Luna made her blink so much more than normal. Perhaps the unyielding stare made her eyes dry in sympathy. "No. Yes. " She sighed. "I don't know."

"That about covers it," Luna said happily as she stared out the window at the passing scenery. Terraced houses passed as the train streaked through northern London.

Ginny said, quietly, "It's just that I've met someone I like and I don't really know what his feelings are yet." She clenched her hands together on her lap and girded herself, about to discuss her feelings with her friend. "Or mine–I know I'm too young to have thoughts about boys yet, but somehow I do. It's Harry Potter. Harry's best mates with Ron and gets on with the twins and he was at the Burrow for the end of the summer." She noticed that Luna is now listening intently. "I think I'm going barmy, but I've caught him staring at me from time to time. I'm starting to think–and this is going to sound crazy–but I'm starting to think that he might like me."

"That would be fitting, Ginevra, since you are married after all. I understand that people who are married often are 'in like' with each other."

Ginny's mouth dropped open.

"I remember when we were six I was your bridesmaid the first time you married Harry Potter." Luna put her fingers on her temple, thinking. "Or maybe it was your dolly, who I remember was also named Harry Potter. It's all so confusing."

Ginny groaned, recalling the memory.

Her companion, though, ignored her embarrassment and continued in a dreamy voice. "I seem to remember you married him several times–once you even had a rather long honeymoon. I did have to ask Mummy afterward about what couples do on honeymoons." She blinked, lost in her thoughts. "It was one of the last conversations we had before Mummy died. She told me about sex. And chocolate. Sex sounds messy, so I think I'd prefer chocolate. Did you have sex with your Harry Potter dolly? Or with Harry Potter?" She blinked her wide, blue eyes innocently.

Ginny coughed, her face a furious blush. "Um, no, I didn't even know about sex then and… no, Harry and I haven't had sex." She considered whether she should tell Luna more, but decided that, despite the weirdness, she liked having a confidant. "He has been looking at me from time to time–especially since after we went together to Diagon Alley. He hasn't been hanging around Ron as much and has been spending more time near me. What? Do you think I'm crazy?"

Luna stifled her giggles enough to say: "No, silly. It's just that I'm not fond of the colour turquoise. Oh, and Harry is right over there." She pointed over toward the doorway, where a black-haired boy wearing ragged clothing and spectacles stood with a shocked expression and cheeks as red as the Express.

"Meep," Ginny said eloquently, her blush showing no inclination to abate.

"Er, hi Ginny. Who's, uh, your friend," Harry asked, his eyes cast downward.

"Uh, h-hi Harry, th…this is Luna. Luna, this is Harry Potter." Harry stepped toward the blonde witch, who quickly scrambled to her feet and shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you Harry Potter. Ginevra and I were just talking about having sex with you." She ignored Harry's sharp intake of breath as she continued to hold his hand, not releasing it. She peered down at his slender, bony fingers. "That's a very nice repelling charm you're wearing. Did you know that it makes me feel very uncomfortable–like there's nargles crawling around on my body?"

"Nargles? Repelling charm?" he squeaked. "Sex?"

That sarcastic corner of Ginny's mind noted with some amusement that she had never heard a boy's voice reach that particular pitch before—except that one time when one of Bill's ex-girlfriends grabbed his bits outside the Burrow. They broke up shortly thereafter.

"It's quite well done," Luna continued in a strangely happy tone—as if the thought of being made uncomfortable were a remarkable and enjoyable experience. "Whoever cast it is an artisan. Now, I must be going, Harry Potter–it would be a shame to waste a charm like that." She steps outside the cabin. "Ah, I feel better already." She winks at Ginny and skipped, barefoot, down the corridor.

Harry slid the metal door closed and looked at Ginny, who by this time had buried her face in her hands. He saw that the back of her neck and ears are bright red. He slid onto the bench opposite the red-haired witch.

Taking a deep breath, he said, "Ginny?" at the same time she said, "Harry?"

They shared an awkward glance. "You go first, Ginevra."

"Ginny. Only Luna calls me Ginevra."

"Well, I knew it wasn't Ickle Gin-Gin. Ginevra's a pretty name, but so is Ginny." He smiled sheepishly, their eyes meeting. "Ron made a point of not letting me talk to you at all this summer."

"I'm sure I didn't make it easier either," she admitted. "Although…at least I stopped hiding so much after our shopping trip."

"Yeah," Harry breathed. "It was neat seeing your dad hit Malfoy's dad like that."

Ginny nodded, suddenly enthused. "I thought Mum would tear into him, but I think she was as proud of him as we were."

The moment passed quickly. She forced a weak, sickly smile. "Um, Harry, how…how much did you hear?"

Harry ran a hand through his hair and blushed brilliantly again. She liked how the blush started high and then seemed to sink down his neck into his shirt. "Do you really have a Harry Potter doll?"

"Prat," Her own blush returned with a vengeance, "Only me and half the girls in the magical world. There was a series of adventure books that told of all the adventures of Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived. Dad would read them to me every night. You've fought vampires and werewolves and have saved a Veela Princess and the queen of the Merpeople." She grinned wryly. "I'm quite sure I'm not the only one to have married Harry Potter as a little girl."

Harry coughed uncomfortably. "Yeah, you're probably right. I looked at some of those books last year. While the Boy Who Lived was saving the Veela Princess, I was in the cupboard under my relative's stairs nursing a broken arm my uncle gave me."

The blush faded with a gasp of dismay. "What?"

This time it was Harry's turn to blush. "Er, never mind, not quite sure why I said that."

"Harry, if they…"

"Never mind!" he said, speaking sharply for the first time she could remember in the weeks he'd been around her.

"Okay," she said meekly. It was the same tone she adopted when Mum was yelling at her. She mollified her mother with the good little girl act, and then did what she wanted anyway the moment her mother was gone.

This time, though, she saw a flash of something in his eyes she wasn't sure she wanted to explore. She decided to change the subject. "So, why are you here instead of with my brother and Hermione?"

The brief spark faded back into a slightly embarrassed smile. "Well, um, they were acting strange. They wouldn't look at me and kept moving around. I checked to see if I smelled or was hit with one of the Twins curses, but now I'm beginning to think Luna might be right about the repelling charm. But how would she be able to know about something like that?"

Ginny shrugged. "Luna has always been strange, though it got a lot worse after her mother died. Her Mum was in the Department of Mysteries. Even before then she'd see things nobody else did. It used to drive Ron mental. The twins would play along until he'd start crying because he thought they were keeping something from him." She looks down at her hands. "I don't feel repelled though," she said, marvelling at what was, by far, the longest conversation she'd ever had with Harry.

He snorted. "You're the only one then—I've been to three other cabins and didn't feel right in any of them. Neville actually got sick a little. Threw up a chocolate frog," He stretched out on the seat across from Ginny. "But I actually do feel comfortable here. Very much so," He winked at her. "If I didn't know better, Ginevra, I'd think maybe you did the charm yourself to get me alone…."

"It's Ginny. And in your dreams, Potter," she replied hotly, mock-insulted.

"Or yours," he jested.

She blushed, both surprised and exhilarated by the playful banter. For the first time since they first ran into each other last year on the train platform, she lost a little bit of her paralyzing timidity around him and looked at him as a boy she could actually talk to, rather than the hero of all her childhood bedtime stories.

"Maybe so," she said with a blushing smile. She sat up and gave her best Weasley smile. "So, tell me, how long have you been infatuated with me?"

Harry's eyes widened. He opened his mouth to answer but then suddenly started coughing when his words caught in his throat. He sat up, flushing brilliant red as he tried to clear his throat.

"Sorry," Ginny said, slipping back into her old smile.

He then shocked them both when he said, "It was after we got back from Diagon Alley."

She blinked, he blinked back, and the two simply stared at each other for the longest time. "I was joking, I think," Ginny said.

"Er, I…I don't think I was," Harry said. He looked around the little cabin before giving his head a shake. "I can't explain it, Ginny. But since I walked in here it feels like I can't lie about anything. Are you sure you didn't put any charms on the room?"

"I didn't, really!" she said. "I haven't even started Hogwarts and Mum won't let us practice magic before school. How could I even know any charms? Well, okay, I know one hex my brother Bill taught me, but I got in a lot of trouble for using it."

Harry stared at her for a long time. "Who's your favourite brother?"

"Bill," Ginny said before she could think about it.

"Who's your least favourite?"

"Ron, but Percy is close."

"Why do you like me?"

She felt a fire in her cheeks, but found herself answering anyway. "Because the little boy who asked for help on the station last year was so much nicer and cuter than the hero who saved the Veela Princess," she blurted.

He reared back as if stunned.

"Why do you like me?" she demanded.

"Because the little girl who helped me on the station was the first person who was nice to me for the sake of being nice ... I just wished you talked to me more over the summer."

"I was shy and stupid," Ginny said. She peered at Harry. "Do you like Hermione more than Ron?"

"Not more. But definitely as much; I like them different, though."

"What do you mean?"

Whether it was the strange compulsion that was affecting them both, or just because it was the first time asked, Harry had to think about his relationship with them. "I guess its need versus want. I need Hermione as my friend. She made us study last year. She gave us the help we needed to get through the year and in the end she was the one who solved the potion puzzle that got me to Voldemort. She was the first person to ever hug me."

Ginny gasped. She had never heard the whole story of what happened last year. So Harry told her all about it. She listened raptly, enthralled. At one point or another—neither were even aware of when—she moved to the same bench as him and the two sat cross-legged across from each other as Harry told her for the first time about their adventures in their first year. From Hagrid to the troll, from his hexed broom to Fluffy. From the mirror to Voldemort.

When he was done, Ginny sighed. "I never knew Ron could be brave. Is that why you like him?"

"No, I like him because he, like you, was one of the first kids I met in the wizarding world who was nice to me. Because he taught me about wizarding chess and chocolate frogs, Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans and Quidditch. In a way he was my first teacher. I…he taught me how to laugh and tell jokes."

"He doesn't tell very good jokes, Harry."

"That's okay; I didn't know how to tell them at all. I never had friends before. I need Hermione so bad she's a part of me, but I want to be friends with Ron so bad it's almost like a need. So, I don't like one more than the other. I need them both."

She looked down at her hands. "Think when you're older you'll date Hermione?"

"Date? You mean like a girlfriend?" The question obviously surprised him. "Why on Earth would I do that?"

"You don't like her like that? She's rather cute."

"Well, yes, I suppose she is. But I don't look at her like that. She's just Hermione."

"Like a sister?"

"Well, yes, I suppose. Like a sister." He leaned back against the inner wall of the cabin in thought. "That's a good way to say it. She's like a sister I never had. And Ron's like a brother."

"What does that make me?"

"A distant cousin?" Harry asked.

"Prat," she said, breathing in relief. He did not think of her as a sister. "Do you think this room is charmed to make us talk like this?"

"Would you have talked to me like this otherwise?"

"Never," Ginny admitted. "You?"

"I didn't even know I could talk like this."

"Harry…I…Fred and George said there were bars on your windows."

His smile died again, and once again she saw his expression close off and his eyes go distant. It was all the confirmation she needed. So, instead of saying anything else, she slowly reached out and took his hand. His hands were bony and thin—much thinner than any of her brother's hands. If not for the strength she could feel in those fingers, she would think them effeminate.

"I'm sorry," she said simply. "If you do ever want to talk about it…"

"I don't," he said. "No charm will change _that_."

"Okay."

Suddenly his fingers closed on her hand, reversing their roles abruptly. "I will tell you this," he said. "You have a brilliant family, Ginny."

"We're poor," she confessed. "I didn't even get my own wand. This wand belonged to my Great Aunt Lucrecia." She held up the rather archaic-looking wand.

His grip on her hand didn't slacken. She found herself drawn to his gaze. She saw earnestness there—an honesty so brilliant and open it hurt a little to look at it. "You have a brilliant family, Gin," he said again. "I would give every ounce of gold in my vault to have a family like yours, even for just one day."

"Harry…." She stuttered a moment, before she said simply, "we are your family now. Didn't you realize that when you came over?"

"I thought your mum did that for everybody."

"Did you see anybody else there besides you?" Ginny asked.

He ducked his head and broke their hand-holding to run his fingers through that rakish hair of his. "Well, they're brilliant regardless," he said. "Your Mum and Dad are great. And a house full of brothers…"

"Has frustrations of its own," she assured him. More softly, she added, "But I wouldn't trade any of them for anything. I think I know what you're trying to say. And I appreciate it."

Suddenly the door of the cabin slammed open. "Oi, Harry, what are you doing in here with Ginny?"

Beside him Hermione rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Ron, they're talking, what did you think was going on?"

"How was I supposed to know?" Ron said.

"I promise I was not snogging your eleven-year-old sister, Ron," Harry said. "And if you remember, you guys kicked me out."

"Did not," Ron said.

Hermione had the grace to blush. Ginny said quickly, "My friend Luna said there was a repelling charm on Harry."

"Really?" Hermione asked. She stepped forward and grabbed one his hands. "Well," she said, "whatever it was is gone now. I'll admit it felt almost like I had ants crawling over me while you were in our cabin. I'm sorry for the way we acted. It must have made you feel awful."

Harry shrugged. "Glad it's just a repelling charm," he said with a wry smile. "I was beginning to think I had really bad breath."

"No," Ginny said, "that's Ron."

"Hey!" Ron said, flushing brilliantly.

Hermione though smiled approvingly at Ginny. "You and I are going to be friends," she declared.

"Why do you say that?" Harry asked.

"Because maybe between the two of us we can get Ron to start brushing those horrid teeth of his!" Ginny said.

"I use breath freshening charms!"

"Which does nothing to clean your teeth," Hermione snapped.

Ron looked at Harry for help, but Harry just shook his head. "No way am I getting between these two witches. And I happen to brush my teeth."

Ron whimpered in surrender. Only then did Harry realize that the train had stopped. He and Ginny had spent the entire day together talking. He looked back at her and realized with a start that whatever charm was on the cabin was gone now. Still, when he looked at her he felt a strange link—a familiarity. She was his friend now, and it didn't matter if the charm was gone or not. The friendship remained.

"Thank you for letting me sit with you," he said softly, for her alone.

"You're welcome," she told him. Their eyes met, and he could see in her the same knowledge. They were definitely friends.

The four left the cabin and started toward the entrance. Once they were off the car, a thin waif of a girl with blonde hair and large silver-blue eyes stepped back into the cabin. She hummed to herself as she removed her wand, tapped it against each bench, and said, "_Finite Incantatem__._"


	3. The Defence Professor

This is I believe one of the last chapters from Perspicacity's original story. There is a lot of dialogue to set up background, but we also get a glimpse of Luna's true character. Thank you for reading.

* * *

**Chapter Three: The Defense Professor**

Harry stormed out of the Defence classroom, more furious than any class he had with Snape. Gilderoy Lockhart was worse than a bad teacher. He was a liar and a fraud that had purposely unleashed those pixies and then run away.

That made him a coward as well. His true hatred for the man, however, didn't blossom until he was on his way to Herbology, at which time the hated professor suddenly appeared out of nowhere with a brilliant white smile. "Well, that went well, didn't it Harry?"

"Sure, Professor," Harry said sullenly. "Excuse me, Professor; I need to get to my next class."

"I'm sure Herbology can wait for a little," Lockhart said. He wrapped an arm around the uncomfortable second-year. "Tell me, my boy, how did you like the pixies?"

"Fine, Professor," Harry lied.

"I see. Well, here, you should take this."

He looked down at a piece of paper. "_Detention_? What for?"

"You failed your quiz, Harry. If you'd read any of my books you would have been able to answer all of those questions. Your friend Ms. Granger knew them."

"Good on her."

"Quite. So, tomorrow after dinner; see you then!"

Harry growled as he rushed to Herbology. "Five points from Gryffindor for tardiness, Mr. Potter," Professor Sprout said primly when he arrived.

"Sorry, Professor," Harry said quickly. He tried to ignore the glare from his classmates.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

"_Detention_?" Ginny asked in horror. She looked up at the gleaming countenance of the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. "But why?"

"You failed your quiz, Ginny."

"I did not!" she snapped back before she remembered herself. "I mean, Professor, I know I got those answers right. I've read all your books, Mum's read them twice. I'm sure I didn't miss any questions."

"Well you'll have ample time to discuss it with me at Detention, won't you?" Lockhart said with a brilliant white smile.

He walked off through the hall, attracting stares from young witches wherever he went.

Ginny collapsed onto a nearby staircase. Her second day of classes, and she already had a detention. Mum was going to kill her!

"Good morning, Ginevra," Luna said from right beside her.

Ginny yelped in surprise. "Luna! You scared the magic out of me. How did you get there?"

"I was here all along," Luna said, "you just never saw me. What is wrong? Are the Nargles bothering you?"

"Nargles? No, it's this stupid detention. I answered every one of Lockhart's questions right even though they had nothing with DADA. But he said I failed the quiz and gave me detention. My second day, Luna, and I have a detention already! Mother's going to send me a howler, I just know it!"

"Sadly, I can't expect to receive any howlers from my mum as she is dead, but I would think it would be refreshing to know yours cares enough to send one."

Ginny stared at her friend with wide eyes for a moment, and then paled. "Well, yes, I suppose so."

"Don't worry, Ginny, I'm sure everything will work out for the best. Have you talked to Harry Potter lately?"

Mention of Harry was enough to bring a smile to her face. "Haven't had much of a chance, really, different years and all."

"How are your roommates?"

"Oh, they're all nice. I knew Demelza Robins already. Her dad let me ride a broom one time when I was visiting. Thelma Holmes beat Ron at chess the first time she played him, but he threw a fit and she won't play him anymore. And of course there's Natalie Fairbourne, Miss 'I'm-a-princess-why-can't-you-love-me?'"

"And do you love her?"

Ginny smiled and grinned. "Well, yes, I suppose I do. She's willing to laugh at herself too."

"That's good."

"What about your roommates?" Ginny asked.

"They are a merry bunch," Luna said. "Sadly, I do not believe we will be friends. The Wrackspurts have them all under firm control."

In other words, Ginny translated, the Ravenclaw first year girls had no idea what to make of the strange blonde. "Sorry to hear that. I hope things get better for you."

"Oh, I'm sure they will," Luna said absently. "Good luck on your detention tonight. I'm sure everything will turn out for the best."

"Thank you," Ginny said.

Luna stood and walked away, somehow keeping her face buried in a copy of the Quibbler even as she navigated the busy halls.

For her part, Luna made it back to the Ravenclaw common room unimpeded. The eagle knocker which was the only feature of the door asked her the riddle, which she answered without looking up from her paper.

She slipped unnoticed through the common room and up the stairs to her room. As she stepped into the room, she finally looked up from the pages of her father's paper at the three red-faced girls bound and hanging upside down from the ceiling. She flicked her wwand and watched with a slightly absent expression as all three fell with groans of pain to the floor.

"I shall speak slowly and use small words so you may all understand," Luna said to the three gasping, hurt girls. "If you attempt to enter my trunk or touch my belongings again, I will sic the Wrackspurts on you. They shall eat away at your brains until you die frothing at the mouth in an agony that makes the _Cruciatus_ look like a massage." She lifted her wand and a black shadow the size of her fist appeared. The shadow was formless, save for a set of black clicking mandibles.

"Do we understand?" Luna asked again, still without any inflection and still with the slightly absent expression.

The three girls nodded quickly, too terrified to speak.

"How delightful," Luna said. "I'm afraid we shan't be friends, but if you are good then you may survive the coming years. That is dependent, of course, on your discretion. You may leave now."

With a flick of her wrist Luna undid their bindings and the girls scrambled quickly to their feet and rushed out of the room. When they were gone, Luna sat down on her bed and lifted a mirror from her trunk. She looked at the mirror for a moment before she said, "Tonight."

She put the mirror back and then started reading her Transfiguration text book while humming tunelessly. She had a test the following week, after all.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Harry stepped into the DADA classroom with a scowl. He most definitely did not want to be there, but he saw no way around it.

Lockhart was already there, sitting behind a desk piled with a large stack of fan mail. Harry also saw a leather binder on his desk as well, though the professor was ignoring it at the moment, "Ahhh, Harry, so good to see you again."

"You gave me a detention," Harry pointed out, wanting to make very sure the Professor knew his presence was not voluntary.

"Nonetheless, it's good to see you. Come in, come in. Tell me, you've read my biographies–did you find _Magical Me_ to be my best work? I think it nicely frames my prodigious abilities and, dare I say it, my photograph on the cover is simply stunning."

"Um, I don't know, sir. I've only read the first few chapters."

"Aha!" the professor said, projecting dramatically in a loud, stage voice, "Then you know of my courage under fire, my resolve under pressure, my unparalleled ability to think on my feet…."

Harry nodded, bored and annoyed that he received a detention on so early in the term.

"We shall begin your detention in a few minutes. I have another student who will be starting her detention this evening too. For your punishment this evening, I ask that the two of you read through a manuscript I'm preparing and comment on it as you deem appropriate."

"Sir?"

"Yes, Harry. I know you must feel extremely flattered to be given the chance to contribute to the telling of my life story." He stepped around the desk and gave a patronizing pat on Harry's shoulder. He continued in a pompous, magnanimous voice. "Rest assured, I will acknowledge your contributions. Who knows? Perhaps, if you cultivate it properly, your fame may someday even approach mine." He looked up. "Ah, Miss Weasley, or, might I call you Ginevra?" He offered a genteel bow to the first-year witch, who nodded awkwardly while blushing. "Excellent. Ginevra, do come in. Rest assured I made a point of not letting your dear mum know of your detention. I realize it was a concern."

Ginny beamed at her Professor and Harry felt a brief flash of jealousy toward the man he viewed as a fraud. Professor Lockhart motioned gracefully for her to take a seat next to Harry, which she did.

"Harry, Ginevra, let me tell you what I wish for you to do. At first, I considered having you help me answer my very tall stack of fan mail; however I believe that a personal touch is important in such matters. Harry, let that be a lesson to you, as you learn to manage your celebrity." He fluffed his blonde coiffure.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yes, Professor," he said. He could not stop the sarcasm, and bit back a yelp when Ginny elbowed him in the ribs.

Professor Lockhart continued without missing a beat. "Instead, I will ask the two of you to proof-read my latest manuscript. Please read carefully at least twenty pages and be prepared to discuss my exploits at length when I return. I shall be in my quarters receiving a well-deserved pedicure and shall return in two hours to hear your thoughts on my heroics."

He handed two thick sheaves of parchment to the students and, humming to himself, strode out of the room. The door closed with a firm _blam_.

Harry started to curse under his breath until Ginny began to giggle at him.

"What?" he asked sharply.

"You're jealous, Harry."

"Of that ponce? Riiiight." He folded his arms crossly. "Did he do the pixies is your class?"

She ducked her head. "Well, yes, I suppose he did. But I'm sure he was just testing us."

"He wouldn't know what to do if his life depended on it. The man's a fraud."

"You're just jealous," she insisted again.

"I'm bloody mad is what I am," Harry fumed. "The ponce gave me detention because I didn't know his favourite colour is lilac? Is lilac even a _colour_? I thought it was a flower! It's stupid! This whole thing is just stupid! For two years in a row now we haven't gotten a decent DADA professor!"

He pushed himself from the student desk and started pacing the room angrily. "Harry," Ginny said, "I got detention too. And it's not like he's here right now. Is it really that bad, being in a room with me?"

"It's not that, Ginny," Harry said, though in a more subdued tone. "It's just that the man's a fraud. I've read enough of his books to know that there's no way he could do all the things he said he did–sometimes his stories even overlap in time."

"Maybe he got a few dates wrong?" she shrugged.

"This is more than just a few wrong dates. He's completely off in how he handles things. Like the way he says he defeated the Wagga Wagga Werewolf–I admit I'm not an expert on magical creatures, but werewolves aren't mortally afraid of wooden stakes…."

Ginny only half listened to Harry's rant as she peeked over the manuscript on her desk. "Harry…"

"And the Belarus Banshee? I really doubt anyone could survive getting close enough to a banshee to tweak its nose and cause it to stop wailing…."

"Harry!"

"And I know for a fact that there's no way that 'Gilderoy' means 'indomitable warrior' in Gobbledygook! Hermione told me the goblins don't even have an 'R' sound in their language!"

"HARRY!" she shouted, sending a stinging hex his way.

"Ow! What? Why did you do that to me for!"

"Sit down. Shut up. Read."

"Huh?"

"Do it!" Ginny had her wand still trained on Harry.

"Fine!" he said, petulantly, valorously choosing discretion over angering the witch further. He opened to a random page of parchment and started to read:

_Lethifolds are dark creatures resembling a half-inch thick black cloak which moves along the ground at night in order to hunt prey. The primary mode of attack is a smothering attack, followed by a slow digestive process that takes place inside the lethifold. Lethifolds have two glands near their eyes that secrete venom with a two-fold purpose: 1) immobilizing prey, and 2) dissolving of connective tissue, particularly collagen. The most effective means by which lethifolds can be driven off is a Patronus Charm. They are particularly resistant to temperature based attacks (hot or cold) and they have questionable flammability. The most effective means of dispatch is by stabbing the creature through its body with an envenomed blade prepared in the following manner…._

"What? I can't believe it–this is actually useful. I didn't know this before…."

"See what I mean, Harry? There's more going on here than what we know."

He turned to the first page, where he saw _A Compendium of Practical Defence Techniques, by USPK2453, codename Adonis._ "Ginny, what's this mean? Lockhart said he wrote this, but look here." He pointed to the bi-line. The witch paled as she read it.

"Harry," she said meekly, "I think that Professor Lockhart…"

"Is an Unspeakable? You would be right, Ginevra." Professor Lockhart's voice emanated from immediately behind the two and startled them. Harry spun around and looked first at the amused Professor and then at the door, which remained closed. "Surprised Harry that I'm not such a fraud after all?" He grinned at the boy, but the expression was completely different than what the public Gilderoy Lockhart would have used. In fact, as he crossed the floor, he moved completely different—smoother, with more controlled steps.

"Professor, what's an Unspeakable? I've never heard that name before."

"We're a sort of Security Service, the MI5 for the Magical World. Think of us as highly trained intelligence officers. My Lockhart persona is subterfuge–nobody would suspect from that I am, in fact, extraordinarily competent."

Ginny squinted shrewdly. "Why are you telling us this? There's a catch–undercover Unspeakables don't just go around telling first- and second-year students their identities."

"Indeed, Ginevra, there is a catch. I am recruiting you." His eyes creased with the faintest hint of a smile, though his face remained entirely neutral. "Not to join the Unspeakables, mind you, at least not right away, but to be trained by us. We have had an eye on both of you since you were born. Do either of you know of the Miltventor Scale?"

Harry shook his head, but Ginny blurted, "The talent scale?"

The Unspeakable nodded. "Affirmative, that's what it's often called. It's given by the Department of Mysteries personnel under cover to magical children at birth. Have either of you been told what your scores were?"

"Not me–I never heard about it until now," Harry said.

"I think mum told me I scored around the 75th percentile," Ginny said. "Just like my brother Bill."

Her professor shook his head. "No, that's just what the report your parents received said. Ginevra, your actual score is 99.7 percent." Ginny's jaw dropped.

"So I'm…."

"More powerful than all but three in one thousand witches or wizards in the entire world, and the most powerful witch born in England in a hundred years. All scores above the 99th percentile are sealed, state secrets, for reasons I'm sure you can guess at."

"How about my score?" Harry asked.

"You're a sport."

"I beg your pardon?"

"You're off-scale, Harry. Above the 99.9th percentile, beyond where what we measure is even meaningful. You have the potential, if trained properly and your gift not stifled, to surpass Dumbledore and even Voldemort." Ginny breathed in sharply at the mention of the Dark Lord's name. "But we've been watching you–your vast potential is being squandered with sub-standard education and environment. Given your unique importance to the Magical World, this is unconscionable, which is why I've been stationed here by my superiors at the Department."

"What do you mean? If it's about killing Voldemort as a baby, Professor Dumbledore said it was my mother's sacrifice, not something I did…."

Lockhart held a hand up to silence the boy. "That's not what I mean at all. A prophecy was made before you were born that averred that a boy born at the end of July 1980 had the potential to defeat Tom Marvolo Riddle, a.k.a. Lord Voldemort, for good. Voldemort learned of your status as a fellow Sport and so decided you were the threat. That scar," Lockhart touched it gently, "confirms that he has marked you as his equal. We both know that Voldemort is not dead. And that prophecy assures us that you are the one slated by fate to destroy him. Your parents knew that, Harry. I was the one who tested you. And as far as we're concerned, what Lily did was actually use your own magic potential to craft a protection around you. I assure you, mothers have died for the children before and those children have still fallen to the killing curse. No, it was power innate within you that destroyed Voldemort's body, and that is why facing him again is your destiny. I have no idea what the Headmaster was thinking, putting you with your relatives as he has. If not for the Blood Wards he crafted using your magic, we would have interceded ages ago…"

Ginny's jaw started to quiver. "Professor…."

"Please, when we are alone call my Adonis."

"Adonis, Tom Marvolo Riddle is V- V- Voldemort?" Her Defence Professor nodded sagely.

Ginny paled the color of bone, making her freckles stand out. She bit her lower lip and started digging in her bag until she pulled out a small, black leather diary. "It…it wrote back to me. Its name is Tom Riddle."

Adonis looked long and hard at the book, his face implacable save for a tiny deepening of the crease above his left eyebrow. "Most interesting Ginevra. May I hold onto this?" She nodded quickly and handed it over. He took it gingerly, and when the diary was out of her possession Ginny hugged her arms around herself and shivered as if cold.

"So you're going to train me, sir?" Harry asked.

"I'm going to train both of you, Harry, as a team. You can't do it all yourself–you'll be most effective if your skills and talents are complemented by those of another. Ginevra, you're one of three witches within two years of Harry's age who fit all of the Agency desiderata for talent and power and whose personality matches the desired profile. Together, you two have the potential to become the most effective Unspeakable team in centuries. That is, if you are willing to receive the training and become what you are capable…."

Harry and Ginny both nodded.

He fixed each with a long stare. "While you are not required to become a 'couple'…" Harry and Ginny looked at each other and blushed. "…and I discourage your rushing into that now because of your youth, I think you will find that in time that your mutual compatibility is likely to be considerably higher than with others." He chuckled to himself. "Trust me, we have been doing this kind of thing for ages–we're pretty good at determining who will work well with whom."

Harry turned to him. "Wait a minute–the repelling charm! You put it on me in Flourish and Blotts!"

His professor holds up his hands. "Guilty as charged, Harry."

"And did you put a charm to make us tell the truth in the compartment? Ginny asked.

"No, your Control did that."

"What?" Ginny asked.

"He means me, Ginevra."

Ginny and Harry both stared in surprise. Luna Lovegood sat nearby on the edge of a student chair staring at them with large, unblinking eyes. She wore a Butterbeer cap necklace, turnip earrings and had her wand tucked behind one ear. The door was still closed.

"How'd you get in here?" Ginny asked.

"I was already here, Ginevra," Luna said in an absent, happy tone.

"Why did you call her a Control?" Harry demanded.

"Tradition," Adonis said. "During the first war, all the agent couples had a single controller responsible for receiving and dispensing intelligence, assigning missions and providing backup."

"So is Luna high on the potential scale?" Harry asked.

"Not so high," Luna said. "I believe I was 89th percentile."

"Then why is she…" Ginny began.

"Luna has some unique aspects of her psychological make-up that make her an ideal candidate for the position," Adonis said. "Much like her father, who had served as Control during the first war."

"Like what, precisely?" Harry asked.

"She has no morals," Adonis said.

"At all?" Ginny asked, blinking in surprise.

"None. No inhibitions, no morals. She is sociopathic or asocial. She does not care what anyone thinks of her except for those she uses as her social anchors. She will do anything if asked by her anchor without further thought. For example—Luna, would you mind removing all your clothes?"

"Of course," Luna said without any inflection. She stood and very quickly started removing articles of clothing. Harry and Ginny watched in stunned fascination as Luna removed her robes, her shirt and tie, and then started to remove the training bra beneath it.

"Luna, please stop!" Harry said.

"You don't wish to see me naked?" Luna asked, blinking owlishly. "Don't boys like to see girls naked?"

Harry shook his head. "Not friends. Not like this. Please put your clothes back on."

"Okay." Without any further inflection, she began to get dressed again.

"Excellent," Adonis said. "Our analysts suggested you would do just that, Harry, else I wouldn't have asked Luna to do that. She is not as magically powerful as either of you, but she has an analytical intellect completely unencumbered by emotions or social mores. If I asked her to step into the hall and kill your friend Ms. Granger she would do so without hesitation."

"How can she be like that?" Harry asked.

"She began suffering a sociopathic personality disorder after she witnessed her mother die," Adonis explained. "Mind healers determined that the best course of action was to give her personality anchors. Her father and I have served as such, but she has no peer anchors. And so it was our hope this would be you two. Harry, Luna was one of the other girls who could have been a match for you. Although not as powerful, her intellect would have made up for the difference, and she would do absolutely anything you asked. However, our best people said the configuration of you three would work better."

Ginny looked away from Luna, wondering if she'd ever known the girl at all. "Adonis, why do this? Why go through all this trouble?"

"We needed the two of you to initiate a friendship on which we could build your working relationship. It's highly likely that you would have approached Ginevra eventually, Harry. Though most wizards and witches like to pretend otherwise, we are often drawn to the most powerful magical beings around us. That's why people like Dumbledore and Voldemort have so many followers. You are both very powerful, and that power alone would have eventually drawn you together. We just accelerated the process by a few years in order to maximize the chance of success of your training. As to the why…"

Adonis walked over to his desk and sat down. The smile faded and his shoulders slumped. "During the war, there were four pairs of us plus a few pairs of secondary supporters. Zeus and Hera, who were our controllers…"

"My parents," Luna chirped.

Adonis nodded. "The primary pairs were Aphrodite and I, Remus and Romulus, Helios and Selene and finally Oeagrus and Calliope. You would know these names as Xenophilius and Cynthia Lovegood, Gideon and Fabian Prewitt, James and Lily Potter and Frank and Alice Longbottom."

Ginny gasped. "You mean Uncle Gideon and…"

"Both were, at the time, the most powerful Prewitts ever. They were accomplished duellers and generally considered the muscle of our Section. You see, Harry, Ginny, the Unspeakables are forbidden by our charter to partake in local political issues. Our mandate is the study of magic and protection against foreign magical threats. Our particular section was comprised of the most powerful witches and wizards, given the most advanced training. All of us served overseas fighting Voldemort's overseas interests, but the time came when we had to return home and fight in absolute secrecy. Not even the Minister knew of us officially. At the height of the war, Voldemort had close to a thousand followers. Between our section, the DMLE and Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix, the DoM accounted for ninety-eight percent of all enemy casualties. The eight of us killed almost two hundred Death Eaters just by ourselves."

"What happened?" Harry asked.

"Most of us died," Adonis said. "And I can't tell you how heart-breaking it was, because my wife was one of the last to fall, right before your parents."


	4. Two Plus One

**Chapter Four: Two Plus One**

"Most of us died," Adonis said. "And I can't tell you how heart-breaking it was, because my wife was one of the last to fall, right before your parents."

Adonis's voice had gone completely flat. "Ginevra's uncles were the first to fall. My wife, who you might know as Dorcas Meadows, died at the same time the Bones family was massacred. That, Harry, occurred just hours before your family was attacked. I suspected 'Dite discovered the traitor who released the secret of the Fidelius Charm that protected your family."

Harry's eyes widened, "Secret? What do you mean?"

"Has the headmaster never explained what happened on that Halloween?"

"He told me that Voldemort killed my parents and tried to kill me."

"But he never told you how Voldemort should never have found your family? Harry, James and Lily were protected by a Fidelius Charm the headmaster himself cast. I told James to select his friend Peter Pettigrew as his secret keeper, but they must have switched, because the day after the attack Sirius Black, your father's other friend, killed Pettigrew and a dozen muggles, then in a fit of hysterics declared to the Wizengamot that it was his fault that your family died. He's been in Azkaban Prison ever since. He must have been the one to betray and kill 'Dite, as well."

Harry blinked in surprise. "No one ever told me," he said softly. "But, you said you were all so powerful…"

"Power and training does not mean immortality, Harry," Adonis said sadly. "Even the most powerful and well trained witch or wizard can die. Our training will not make you and Ginevra superheroes. It will be a long, arduous process that in the end will leave you with an increased arsenal and the experience to know when to use it, and when to run away."

"Which is why we are here," Luna said softly. She had not moved from her desk. "There is too much being kept from the world by Dumbledore- Too much being kept from you."

Adonis nodded, "So, to our first order of business. Dumbledore would never have hired me if he thought I could actually do the job, so my charade as Gilderoy Lockhart must continue."

"What's your real name?" Ginny asked.

"I honestly forgot it," Adonis said. "I was taken in by the department as an orphan. I've always been Adonis as far as I'm concerned."

He reached down to a drawer on his desk and pulled out two thin, leather-bound tomes. He handed one to each student, touching his wand to each cover. Harry's turned into a Quidditch strategy book, whereas Ginny's morphed into a book on practical and household spells. "These are charmed so that only the two of you will be able to read their real content. They contain the most up-to-date information on the kind of magical background you'll require in a pared down form that will allow you to learn it economically. Luna has already studied this book. Needless to say it has been charmed not to show its true size, as the text is several thousand pages long. As I said earlier, her father still serves as my Control and has already given her the training I am going to be starting you both on."

Professor Lockhart turned toward Harry and chanted a long incantation. The boy started to glow brightly with a cream-coloured aura that faded rapidly. He repeated the process for Ginny. "An obfuscation charm–it will help prevent mental intrusion by Snape or Dumbledore, both of whom are accomplished Legilimens. I don't have to remind you that this all needs to be kept completely secret. I'm afraid you both will have many detentions. The next one is tomorrow, when we begin your training in earnest. After this year we will rotate in a new Defence teacher every year to continue with your training."

Harry decided to pursue a hunch. "Sir, one more question, if I may."

"Yes, Harry?"

"Who was the other girl?"

Lockhart smiled sadly, "Miss Granger, of course."

"Why not her? I mean, I do like Ginny, but Hermione and I are already a team in a way."

Adonis looked from Harry to Ginny, then finally to Luna. "Miss Granger is a strict Type-A personality. While she could and probably will eventually break rules through her loyalty and love for you, she will never be comfortable with it. It will be a burden to her, and thus a burden to you. Ginevra, on the other hand, has been breaking rules all her life."

"What do you mean?" Ginny demanded.

"The brooms in the tool shed?"

She blanched. "Have you been spying on me?"

"Of course," Adonis laughed. "You and Harry here are national assets, Ginevra. The DoM takes care of magical treasures. And frankly, you are a beautiful flier. Believe it or not, your broom flying was the final deciding factor. It was an indicator of a compatible personality type that in the long run would mesh better. If Harry were to partner with Hermione, he would have eventually become romantically linked with her, but he would never have been truly happy with her. She would try to change him to fit her personal conception of the perfect man. While some boys are amenable to this, and in fact are in need of this, Harry is not one of those boys. While his physical and magical growth has been harmed by his upbringing, his personality is perfect just the way it is."

"What do you mean, sir?"

"You're a hero, Harry. Some heroes are shaped by destiny, others are forged by experience. You, my boy, were simply born one. Despite the abuse you have lived with, your sense of right and wrong is so deeply ingrained in your character that you will always do the right thing, no matter how hard it is for you. You're a hero. And that's why Magical Britain needs you so badly."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Detentions continued on a daily basis, although quietly. When questioned about them at staff meetings, Adonis preened and said, "Why, they're helping me with all sorts of special projects! By the year's end, he'll know how to handle his fame." The other staff rolled their eyes, while to his friends Harry continued complaining bitterly about it to anyone who would listen. Snape actually stared at Harry every night with a satisfied grin.

However, when the doors to the DADA classroom were closed and Adonis threw up a host of wards that deadened every possible means of monitoring, Harry and Ginny's true education began.

They did not learn to duel or even learn spells at first. They were (as Adonis pointed out) still children. Instead, they learned the true theory behind magic. They learned why spells worked the way they did and learned the roots of arithmancy. The spells they cast were basic stunners, but Adonis did not show them how to cast the spells, but why the casting worked in the first place.

"The wand is the focus of the mind," he told them. "A sufficiently strong and disciplined mind does not need a wand at all times."

"You mean wandless magic?" Ginny asked. "Isn't it exceedingly difficult?"

"Yes," Adonis said simply. "Amazingly so, not only does it require a high level of magical potential, it also requires a finely tuned mind. That's why our training will also include magical yoga and Tai Chi. I'm going to help you gain an instinctive understanding of your own magic. The true magical martial artist is able to channel his or her magic into his body to perform amazing feats. The west views Muggle motion pictures of martial artists as jokes or nonsense when they see martial artists flying through the air. But the magical practitioners of those countries can in fact do that."

"Are they better than us?" Harry asked.

"It is, as always, a matter of personal skill, power and training," Adonis said. "The Grand Sorcerer of the Emperor would probably lose against Dumbledore, simply because Dumbledore's magical potential is almost unlimited and he has a lifetime of experience and expertise. However, a typical British Auror wouldn't stand a chance against a Japanese Auror because Japan trains its Aurors more intensely than we do. It is a different application of power, but not necessarily better. However, our training program is designed to combine the best techniques from around the world to a single fighting system that is better than any single approach. And to really master anything we do, you must be able to practice. So, your wands please?"

Adonis quietly removed the tracking charms on their wands. "That's better. Luna will be showing you beginning Yoga and Tai Chi every weekend. I'll let you pick a spot of your choosing."

They read every night. Often during their two hour detentions they would spend the first hour doing homework. Adonis seemed to be a master of every discipline. While he did not give answers, he had a way of asking them questions that forced them to think of the answers much faster than if they tried on their own.

When their homework was done, he started teaching them the true dark arts and its defences. This was what both felt the class was supposed to be like, but could not be because of the Ministry and Dumbledore.

Their morning routine with Luna was the strangest part of their training to date. On the first day, Luna somehow got into the Gryffindor dorms and entered Harry's room. She crawled into bed with Harry, dressed in flowing cotton pants and a shirt that could have been a sweat suit if not for the magical style of tailoring, and simply lay next to him.

Harry opened his eyes to find a pair of blue-silver eyes staring right back. He bit back a startled yelp and sat up to look at his roommates. As it was still dark, they were all sound asleep. "Luna, how did you get in here?"

"Through the doors, silly," she said without smiling.

"Why are you here?"

"You need to get up for morning Yoga. Ginny is downstairs."

Harry nodded and sat up, but then blushed as he noticed he was only in his . He looked up at Luna and saw she was looking at him without expression. "Luna?"

"Yes, Harry?"

"Are you…happy?"

She tilted her head to one side much like a dog and considered the question. "I'm not sure," she admitted.

"When Adonis asked you to strip…"

"Would you like me to take off my clothes, Harry? I'm still very young and so sadly I do not have very large breasts yet, but nonetheless I understand boys like looking at girls. I've grown some pubic hair, if that helps."

"No, I would never ask you to do anything like that," Harry said quickly, blushing all the way down his chest. "I'm just trying to understand you; that's all."

"That will be difficult," Luna said with a hint of a frown. "I'm quite broken, you see. The mind healers could not fix me, and the muggle psychiatrists wished to put me on medication. Father thinks it had something to do with the spell Mum was working on when she died. I was there, you see, and the magical backlash struck me even as it killed my mum. It was a variant of the _Cruciatus_ curse she was trying to adapt for medical purposes."

Harry felt moisture gathering in his eyes. She noticed and smiled weakly. "It's quite all right, Harry. You see, the point of a social anchor is to give me a frame of reference. Nebulous concepts such as right and wrong have no meaning to me. So instead my frame work is, 'What would father do? What would Adonis do?" She reached out and touched Harry's cheek. "And now it is, 'What would Harry or Ginny do?' I find this a much more satisfactory arrangement as we have more common experiences and so I am able to have a more comprehensive frame of reference in which to respond to events."

"But…but…what about dating, Luna? What about finding someone and loving them? Having a family?"

"I have you," she said, "And Ginny. Dating is not something I'm concerned with, and I've been told that love is outside of my emotional understanding. But if it helps, I very much enjoy being around you and Ginny. It is almost like having friends. And if you should ever wish to see me naked, or to touch me, or even to fuck me like an animal…" Here Harry blinked at the casual way she said it. "…I will always do as you ask and enjoy it. The same is true for Ginny. You see, you and Ginny are now my anchors, my frame of reference for how to live my life."

She stood and smiled, though again the expression never reached her eyes. "Please be down in five minutes."

She walked out of the room. In the darkness, accompanied by the roaring snore of Ron Weasley, Harry found himself crying for his new friend. An hour later, as he crawled up the stairs with Ginny weeping beside him for a completely different reason, he no longer felt quite as much sympathy. Aside from never having a possible love life or knowing how to live, Luna also had absolutely no mercy. He never imagined his muscles could hurt the way they did.

Ron and Hermione acted sympathetic as the days dragged on, while at the same time glad it wasn't them going to detention every night; Neither seemed to question Harry's quiet improvement in his classes. Ginny's performance was never an issue before, so no one questioned her perfect scores.

The first break Harry and Ginny got from detentions or their Luna-driven morning workout was for the Quidditch tryouts. "I want you both to try out this year," Adonis instructed them.

"First years aren't allowed their own broom," Ginny said.

"You'll use Harry's old one. After all, nothing says you can't try out," Adonis said. "I also have it on good terms that Alicia Spinnet will not play this year."

"Why not?"

"Luna asked her not to."

Harry blinked. He didn't know Alicia as well as Wood and the twins, but she was still a teammate and was friendly enough. "What did Luna do?"

"I believe she threatened Alicia's sister."

Ginny gasped, "How could she do that?"

"Because Luna is amoral?" Adonis said with a hint of humour in his voice.

"Then how could you ask her to do that?"

"I didn't tell Luna how to open up a chaser slot, I just asked her to do so. She selected the means by which to accomplish the task. That is what a Controller does, Ginevra. It's her job to set the stage. You must understand that we play for keeps. Unspeakables are the only branch of the ministry that is authorized to use the Unforgivable Curses without consequence. That is for a reason."

"Why make room on the team, though?" Harry asked.

"I want the two of you playing together," Adonis said. "Frankly, Harry, I would like to see you as a chaser as well. Seeker is a lone position that doesn't require as much team coordination as does a chaser. However, an active seeker can and should take a larger role in the game. You'll tell Wood that Ginny is the best flier you've seen apart from yourself. You'll then tell him you want to play a larger role in the games. He'll appreciate it. He hasn't insisted previously because you were a first year."

Adonis was right.

They all gathered at the pitch for Gryffindor tryouts. Harry noticed that Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell were both deeply distraught over what they called "Alicia's betrayal." He and Ginny shared a long, troubled look but decided the deed was done.

There were seven other people trying out for the chaser position. Harry made sure he was close to Wood when they began flying exercises. "Oliver," Harry said right before it was Ginny's turn, "watch the red-headed first year."

Wood blinked. "Harry, isn't that Fred and George's sister? What's she even doing here? She's a first year."

"I got a new broom," Harry said, patting his new Firebolt. "So I let her borrow mine. Watch her fly, Oliver. Remember how you felt the first time you saw me fly?"

Oliver's eyes widened. Harry, for his part, held his breath. He'd never seen Ginny fly either, so he was literally putting his reputation with the whole team on the line.

Ginny lined up with two fourth years and one sixth year—all boys, all bigger than her. In fact, she looked very small compared to them. There's was a simple speed-obstacle course around the pitch. Charmed balloons floated in various parts of the air to form a broom slalom.

The moment Angelina blew the whistle for them to start Harry gave a long sigh of relief while Oliver grinned.

Ginny shot off the ground faster than anyone else, and was a good three broom-lengths ahead by the time the next fastest flier got off the ground. The air whipped at her long red hair as she blew past the balloons even faster than Katie Bell, who had the current speed record. Harry knew some of it was her new broom, but the rest was just instinctive skill and prodigious talent.

"She's beautiful," Wood breathed. "Harry, how did you know?"

"Spent a few weeks with her family over the summer," Harry said. By then Fred and George drifted over on their brooms.

"Who knew?" Fred began.

"That ickle Gin-Gin can fly?" George finished.

"So ruddy well?" Fred finished.

"We'll have to get an exception," Oliver said.

Harry pointed to the stands where Professor McGonagall was watching raptly. "Don't think that'll be a problem, Wood."

"I'm going to go talk to her," Wood said.

Left alone with the twins, Harry said, "She's been sneaking rides on the family broomsticks since she was a kid."

"Ruddy brilliant," George said.

"I see a problem though," Fred said.

"Yeah, see it too," George said.

"What?" Harry asked.

The twins pointed down at the stands a few feet from McGonagall, where Ron, Hermione and several other classmates were sitting. Even from their distance, Harry could see that Ron was red-faced. They were close enough to hear Wood talking to the professor. Hermione was saying something to him, but the youngest male Weasley was not listening. He stood and stalked out of the stands.

Harry realized with a start that he never once considered how Ron would react to his sister making the team her first year on his best friend's broom, when he couldn't fly well enough to even bother trying out.

* * *

A/N-Special thanks to my Beta Mihir and the rest of my Yahoo group. Thank you!


	5. Weasley Wiles, Lovegood Lunacy

Chapter Four review responses are available in my forums here on ff dot net. Thank you.

* * *

**Chapter Five: Weasley Wiles, Lovegood Lunacy**

Hermione Granger watched her friends and felt her heart slowly breaking.

The year started out poorly with that fight in Diagon Alley, but the week following just got worse. She berated herself constantly for not realizing the discomfort she and Ron felt around Harry was the result of a spell. She wracked her brain for hours trying to figure out what it was about Harry that made her feel so very uncomfortable. That a bubble-headed blonde first year had figured it out at a glance made her feel particularly stupid.

So, she was guilty to begin with on how she and Ron treated their best friend. But then the guilt was offset by a little anger. They found him happily chatting with Ron's little sister who hadn't said three words to them all summer as if the two were the best of friends. They were even holding hands!

She knew Ron hadn't said anything yet, but he would. He watched the two of them like a hawk after seeing them holding hands on the train, but in public they just acted like casual friends. She knew Ron's suspicions that Harry was snogging his eleven-year-old sister were ludicrous, of course. But their relationship was strange, and Hermione was honest enough to admit it hurt. Because all the time he spent with Ginny was time he did not spend with her and Ron.

It was now a week before Halloween and after almost seven weeks of class, Harry had not come to her for help once. Others had filled the gap, of course. Her revision sessions in the library tended to attract several of her classmates; but never Harry. Plus his on-going detentions were odd.

She only became suspicious after Ginny's roommate Demelza mentioned that Ginny had detentions every night too, and it didn't seem right that the student with the highest first year class standing should be in detention every night.

Then there was Quidditch.

In the year and a half Hermione had known Ron, she had never seen him so angry before as when he saw Ginny flying on Harry's old broom. She didn't know much about Quidditch, but she knew enough to realize that Ginny was almost a certainty for the team. The fact that Oliver Wood flew over to Professor McGonagall with a delighted expression on his face and announced, "We've got to have Weasley, Professor!" did not help.

But when Professor McGonagall said, "I completely agree, Wood. I'll have the exemption to you tonight," she knew the situation was beyond repair.

"Ron?" she asked softly.

He was red, completely red. He was so red the skin around his brows had turned pale, while his hands were balled into fists. He stood up and pushed past her and Neville and stalked stiff-legged off the stands.

"That's not good," Neville muttered.

"Come with me?" Hermione asked.

The quiet boy nodded his agreement. The two left the stands and ran after Ron. They finally found him in his room, screaming and throwing his books. He was still flushed with anger, but was also crying as he ranted how unfair it was. If Hermione knew anything about her friend, it was that Quidditch was his life.

Risking great bodily harm, Hermione stepped into his warpath and hugged him.

That single act of compassion stopped his rant mid-word. Instead, he flopped back onto his bed and simply cried like any heart-broken twelve-year-old boy would.

Hermione finally left with a very dirty sleeve and smiled at Neville for staying with their friend. She walked out of the common room after she saw the players were back from the pitch. Ron's rant had gone on for a long time.

She then looked through the castle until she finally found Harry and Ginny quietly revising in the library. She paused when she saw them, surprised and hurt at how very comfortable they appeared together. They were talking to each other with such casual ease and knowledge, just like how Harry used to talk to Ron and her.

She bit down on the hurt and walked to the table.

The two looked up at her at the same time. "How's Ron?" Harry asked with obvious concern.

Hermione flopped down in her chair. "I think he's fallen asleep. He's been crying."

Harry and Ginny winced. Ginny pointed to Hermione's ruined robes. "I can see that. You… you must be really special to him for him to cry in front of you, Hermione. He's only ever done that in front of Mum and Dad, or once with Bill."

Hermione flushed a little. "Harry, can I speak to you alone for a moment?"

Harry looked surprised for a second, and then turned to Ginny. She smiled weakly. "I'll go see how Luna is doing."

"Thanks," Harry said.

Hermione watched the exchange with narrowed eyes. When the redhead was gone, she turned to Harry. "What's happening between us?" she said softly. "I feel like I've lost my best and first friend."

Harry blinked in surprise. "You haven't lost me!"

"Then where are you, Harry? You're out of the common room before I'm awake. You're finished with breakfast before I'm at the Great Hall. I sit with you at lunch, but only for half an hour and you're gone. Same at dinner. Then you have those insane detentions. Have you seen Hagrid once this year? Have you said more than three words to Ron before you hide in the corners with his little sister? Harry, it's like you don't even…."

"I love you, you know," Harry said.

Hermione stumbled over her words and blinked. "What?"

"You and Ron, I love you guys. You were my very first friends ever. I'd never had any friends before I came here. I'm sorry that I haven't had time to spend with you, and I'll try to do better." He ran his fingers through his hair and looked over at Ginny. "Things are strange right now, Hermione. It's hard to explain. But you remember what happened last year?"

"Of course,"

"He's going to come back."

Hermione went very still. "What?"

"Voldemort's going to come back. He's not really dead. Somehow, he'll possess someone else or get a body somehow, and he'll be back, and the war will start all over. And this time instead of my parents fighting, it'll be us."

"Harry…"

He reached out and took her hand. "If I had a sister," he said softly, "I don't think I could love her as much as you. And Ron _is_ my brother, in every way but blood. I know this hurt him. But Ginny and I…we're partners now."

Hermione pulled her hand away from his, "Partners? Like dating?"

"No, No!" Harry said quickly. "More like teammates. I can't really tell you about it. But I'm just saying this because I know I haven't spent time enough with you, and I'm sorry. Ginny and I were just talking about what we could do for Ron, and I think I have an idea. Maybe…"

He looked over at where Ginny and Luna were talking quietly. "Maybe we can start studying together again. But Ron's going to have to accept that Ginny is a part of it, and maybe Luna Lovegood as well."

"Lovegood?" Hermione blinked in surprise. "Harry, I've heard some strange things about her, and they're not nice at all. Her roommates are absolutely terrified of her."

Harry nodded. "I've never met anyone more dangerous," he agreed.

Hermione stared at him in concern. "You're joking?"

"No, I'm not," Harry said sombrely. "Whatever rumours you heard were probably true. And yet I think she would take a killing curse for Ginny and I. She's like our own Walsingham."

Hermione looked back over her shoulder at the other girls, and then studied Harry very closely. "I'm not sure what concerns me more, Harry. That you acknowledge she's dangerous and compare her to one of the most ruthless spymasters in English history or that you even know who Walsingham is to begin with. The Harry I knew last year wouldn't know that."

"I've been studying a lot more," he said. "Look, I'll talk to Ron. I've already passed my idea by Wood and he didn't mind. He actually thought it was a good idea."

He closed his book and made to leave. Hermione stopped him. "Harry, it's just…I really miss you."

He smiled back. "I miss you too, Hermione. And Ron. I can't promise things will be like last year, but I will promise to try harder, okay?"

Hermione bit her lower lip but finally nodded. "Okay. Thank you for listening, Harry."

"Thank you. Get to know Ginny, Hermione. You'll like her, you really will."

"And Luna?"

"Luna is...a long story. She'll either drive you nutters, or make you think harder than you've ever thought in your life. She's very smart, Hermione. In a mad scientist sort of way, but who knows, you might like her."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Harry walked into the dorm room. Ron was sitting cross-legged on his bed reading _Quidditch Through the Ages_. He was alone, and his face was still a blotchy mess from his earlier tantrum.

"Whaddya want?" he asked without looking up from the book.

"Ginny made the team," Harry said softly.

"Yeah, figured that."

Harry sat on the edge of his bed. "Sorry," he finally said.

"Yeah, right," Ron grunted.

"Ron, I need your help."

"No you don't."

"Really, I do. And Wood agrees. I want to be a better seeker. Not just finding the snitch good, but stealing the Quaffle and decoying Bludgers. I want to work better with the chasers. I don't know how to do that stuff. I've never seen a professional Quidditch game in my life. Ginny and I talked it over, and then talked to the twins, and we figured there's only one person who could really help. Ginny and I would like you to be our coach."

Ron looked up in surprise. "Whaddya mean?"

"You know more about Quidditch than anyone I know who's not already on the team. Wood can call the plays, but he's a keeper and that's really all he knows. He'll be the first to admit he's not good at teaching plays—that was always Charlie's job. There's no one on the team who can teach me how to be a better seeker, or to help me work better with the chasers. But you've seen Omniocular recordings of nearly every game the Chudley Cannons have ever played. Even if they always loose, you've seen what beats them. I've heard you rattle off whole playbooks in your sleep. You could really help us."

"You're just saying that to make me feel better."

"You'll get your own uniform. Wood said."

Ron's eyes bulged, "Really?"

Harry nodded sombrely, "Really."

For the first time, Ron's lips twitched into a grin. "Coach Weasley?"

"It'll even say Coach on your uniform. Even Professor McGonagall said it was okay."

Ron put his book down. "So, what have you been doing with my sister?"

"Making a friend," Harry admitted.

"Better not be snogging her."

"Not once, promise." Harry stood. "Ron, mate, are we good?"

"Haven't seen much of you this year,"

"You'll see more. Just…Ginny's gonna be a part of it."

Ron shrugged. "Figured, what went on during the train ride?"

"Someone charmed our cabin to make us honest."

Ron gaped at him. "Honest?"

"Yeah, that's how I found out she could fly so well. We…we came to an agreement, Ron. She's my friend now. I won't hurt her, I promise."

"Er, well, okay. Better not."

And with that, they were good.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

"You know you can't tell them anything," Adonis said during that evening's detention.

"I know," Harry said sadly. "It's just, they are my best friends. And they could be useful. They helped me reach the Philosopher's Stone last year."

"Harry," Adonis said, "the tests were tailor made for you and your friends specifically to pass them. The mirror was actually the only true defence, and even then it was a defence specifically designed to allow you, and not Voldemort, to circumvent. Whatever else can be said for Dumbledore, I'll be the first to admit the mirror was a stroke of genius. How it must have frustrated Voldemort."

Harry could not refute the logic—through their sessions and his charmed book he read about some wards that could do incredibly nasty things. "But why do that?"

"Dumbledore wanted to set you up with your own team," Luna said with clear logic. She did not look up from her cryptogram puzzle. "He likely knows you are a sport. At the very least he knows that you are the subject of the prophecy, which after all was made in his presence. In all likelihood he wishes to give you a frame of reference to in part control your actions. By doing so, he will have great control over what he feels is the overall battle. To him, you are a weapon and nothing more."

"And to you?" Harry asked Adonis.

"You're a weapon," the man said with a wry grin. "We're just more honest with you about it. Dumbledore is a firm believer in sacrifice and second chances. The fact he kept you in an environment that was purposely designed to hold you back and stunt your magical potential leads me to believe you are not meant to be a true weapon to him so much as a sacrifice. I could be wrong, of course…"

"But you're not wrong," Luna said. She looked up and stared intently both at Harry and Ginny. "You will not be a sacrifice. I will not allow it."

Adonis smiled. "So there we are. How are your practices going?"

"Brilliant," Ginny said with a gleam in her eye. "I thought Harry was mental at first when he thought about Ron coaching us, but he's actually doing a pretty good job."

"Good enough that Angelina and Katie are actually listening too," Harry said. "The only person as fanatical about Quidditch as Ron is Wood himself. He's pleased."

"Good to know. I look forward to your first game. In the meantime, I want to see you go into your meditative pose. Have you reached the section of your book called 'Mental Arts'?"

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The first Quidditch game of the year pitted Gryffindor against Slytherin. In the changing room, the Gryffindor team talked nervously while Wood talked about strategies with Ron. Harry sat by Ginny, swallowing convulsively. He looked and saw that she was very pale, and jittery. He reached down and took her hand.

She smiled a little shyly at him. "You know what?" he said.

"What?"

"You're going to be brilliant."

"Awe, that's so sweet," George said from across the room.

"Makes me want to cry it does," Fred said.

"Did Mum ever find out what happened to those Acromantula silk sheets dad got her for Christmas a few years ago?" Ginny asked sweetly.

Harry had never seen the twins shut up so quickly. "Glad you're on my side," he said.

"Don't forget it," Ginny said, nerves temporarily forgotten."

Finally the call came. They mounted up and flew out. Ron made his way to the team stands with their handful of reserve players. Wood and Flint pretended to shake hands until the balls flew into the air.

Almost immediately the Slytherins started committing blatant fouls, so many that Hooch simply could not catch them all. And also almost immediately Harry left off the search for the snitch and dove straight toward a chaser on the Slytherin team. The other boy had just fouled Angelina and stolen the Quaffle when Harry dove at him with a wild scream.

Bletchley screamed himself and jerked away from Harry's path. The distraction allowed Ginny to soar right by him and kick the Quaffle out of his arms. Katie saw the charmed ball and flew into its path before the startled Slytherins could respond.

Harry kept his eyes on the snitch, of course, but under Ron's tutelage and many viewings of professional matches he did so much more than that. He was like a thief hovering over the other players waiting for a slow pass or an errant throw. He was a shield to the chasers, doing near suicidal dives through the middle of the Slytherin formations to open a path for Ginny or Katie. He scored two goals himself after getting a perfectly thrown pass from Angelina.

Between Wood's near perfect keeping and George and Fred fighting off the Bludger, Harry became a true force to be reckoned with.

That's when the Bludger went insane.

He pulled out of a dive that gave Ginny a clear path to a new goal when he heard Fred shout a warning. He saw the Bludger flying right toward his head and did a last minute sloth roll to avoid it. The ball passed by so quickly he could feel the breeze of its passage.

He resumed his position on the broom and started searching for the snitch in earnest. However, this time Ginny yelled at him and he saw the same Bludger had somehow turned around on its own and was coming right back toward him. Alarmed, he shot off at speed. He glanced behind him and felt his stomach drop. The Bludger was following him. He went through a wild range of moves, but the Bludger stayed on his tail. In fact, it started to gain on him. He needed some way to slow it down.

He spotted Malfoy on the edge of his vision, laughing at his plight.

Well, it would slow the Bludger down, Harry decided.

He turned toward Malfoy, but at the same time slowed a little until the Bludger was right on the bristles of his broom. "Malfoy!" he shouted. "Watch out!"

Cursing right back at him, Malfoy drifted his broom a few inches to the right. Harry skimmed an inch past the startled Slytherin seeker, and then spun into a curve. Malfoy followed his movement with his eyes, shouting at him for being an idiot, and did not see the Bludger until it slammed into his head and sent the Slytherin careening into the pitch.

The Bludger was back on Harry's tail just moments later as he made a line toward the Slytherin keeper. "Bletchley!" he shouted. "Watch out!"

Just like he did with Malfoy, he passed within an inch of the Slytherin beater with the rogue Bludger on his tail. The Bludger slammed into Bletchley's chest and sent the boy tumbling from his broom through one of the goals.

By now the spectators realized something was seriously wrong with the Bludger, and realized equally that Harry seemed to be using it as a weapon of mass destruction. Fearing for the safety of his team, Flint ordered his other players to stay away from Harry while the Gryffindor chasers began scoring with impunity.

Still, the Bludger would not stop. Harry finally flew toward the Professor's box. "Professor Dumbledore," he shouted. "Could you do something about this Bludger before it kills somebody?"

He soared past, and with a twinkling eye Dumbledore flicked his wand. The Bludger exploded. Harry flew up and away from the Bludger's violent demise, right into the snitch.

"Huh," he said, genuinely surprised, "Didn't even see you."

Thus Harry maintained his perfect record.

He flew back down in time to see Flint shouting at Ado…Professor Lockhart while Draco stared in horror at his arm. The arm hung limply, like a long piece of rubber. His face also bore a quickly darkening bruise on the right side.

"You did this!" Malfoy screamed when he saw Potter. "You charmed that Bludger! You made it hit me!"

"What are you talking about?" Harry said as he landed. Immediately all his teammates landed around him, with Ginny by his side. "I told you to watch out. Didn't you hear me?"

"Now, I'm sure I can fix this," Professor Lockhart said.

"Point that wand again at my student and I shall make you eat it," Professor Snape growled as he arrived. "Flint, get him to the hospital wing." He spun to Potter. "I know exactly what you did, Potter. I will see you expelled for this!"

"I told him and Bletchley to watch out," Harry said again, "Yelled it at the top of my lungs. Not my fault they didn't move."

"Indeed," Dumbledore said as the headmaster arrived. "I heard him quite clearly, Professor Snape. And, while Harry's marks have improved tremendously, stripping the charms from a Bludger to make it follow him is simply beyond a second year's abilities. Or do you feel he is good enough to accomplish such a task?"

Snape snorted. "The boy can barely write in the English language. Very well, but we will be watching."

"Indeed we will," Dumbledore agreed.

With that pronouncement the Gryffindors began celebrating their victory. As Harry was lifted onto the shoulders of his teammates, he saw Lockhart speaking with the viciously angry Snape. As Snape turned around, Adonis looked at Harry and winked.

* * *

Thanks as always to Mihir and my Yahoo group for beta reading!


	6. Holidays

Chapter 5 review responses are in my forums here on ff dot net.

* * *

**Chapter Six: Holidays**

"Well, Gin, if you're staying, I'm staying," Ron announced stubbornly.

Ginny sighed in frustration, "Ron, Harry and I are going to be doing detention through the entire holiday."

"I don't understand how Professor Lockhart can do that," Hermione said. "School's not in session. And why?"

"It's my fault," Harry said with a downcast expression. "He…this sounds mental, but I think he's jealous of me. Everybody knows who the 'Boy Who Lived' is but there are still people who don't know who he is, and its driving him nutters. He goes on and on about how he's going to help me handle my fame. He makes me answer his fan mail now."

Hermione looked at Ginny, "And you?"

"He's making me edit his newest manuscript. I'm bollocks at it, but he doesn't seem to care. My editing is no worse than his writing."

Hermione shook her head. "Have you complained to Professor Dumbledore?"

Harry snorted. "Hermione, do you really think it would make a difference?"

She looked down at the book in her lap. "And to think I respected him," she said sadly.

Harry just shrugged. "It's all right, Hermione, it's still better than going back to my relatives. Please, I don't want either of you to ruin your Christmases because of me. Ron, you stayed with me last year and I really appreciated it. And the Weasley family honour is being upheld again this year with Ginny. Go home. Eat your mum's brilliant cooking."

"It'll be okay," Ginny added. "Mum's already promised to send me some crackers."

"Fine," Ron muttered, upset but also secretly relieved.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

"This is much better," Adonis said when Ginny, Harry and Luna arrived in his class the morning after the other students left. "Much better, let's see where our mental shields are, shall we?"

It was the hardest two weeks Harry had ever experienced. Luna drove them mercilessly in both the Yoga and Tai Chi exercises, and then required that they meditate and build their mental defences for an hour. At the end of that hour, Adonis came and cast _Legilimens_ on them. He still broke through, but they were definitely slowing him down.

For four hours every day they practiced their magical theory. That is to say, they tried to understand the mechanics of the magic they cast. Both knew that what they were doing was providing the framework for future wandless casting.

Midway through their second day's lesson on theory, Harry asked, "Why isn't Luna doing this?"

Luna, who spent the lesson doing her cryptogram puzzles on Adonis' desk, shrugged. "I have the mind, but not the power for wandless magic," she said without hesitation. "But it is fun to watch. You and Ginny are quite cute when you practice together."

Harry blushed brilliantly. Ginny simply grinned. "He is cute, isn't he?"

"Now children, flirt later," Adonis said, "Practice now."

After a week of intense training, Adonis allowed them a break for Christmas and Boxing Day. Harry fully intended to spend the day sleeping, but alas his day was interrupted when two weights began bouncing on his bed.

He opened his eyes to see two blurry spots on his bed. One was red, one almost silver blonde.

"You know, if I were older it'd be a real treat to have two girls on my bed. But I'm only twelve, and I'm really tired."

"Prat," Ginny said.

"Should I come back in a few years?" Luna asked.

Ginny blushed, as did Harry. "What are you girls doing?" he asked.

"Waking you up, silly," Ginny said. "It's Christmas."

"Yay," he said dully.

"Presents!"

"Okay," Harry said. He wasn't enthused, but got up and threw on a robe. He knew on some level he should be deeply embarrassed for them to see him in his boxers, but he wasn't. Luna, he knew, simply didn't care. And Ginny had seen him in partial states of undress in the Quidditch changing room.

Mrs. Weasley of course sent them the requisite sweaters. Hermione gave them all books and Ron gave them all chocolate frogs. Neville gave the girls beautifully pressed roses in the cover of blank diaries, while others gave gifts ranging from broom polishing kits to a book on Quidditch.

Luna received a series of muggle animal reference books from her father, and a frightening set of throwing knives from Adonis. From Harry and Ginny she received a set of golden earrings in the shape of turnips.

She opened that last gift in surprise. Ginny and Harry watched as the other girl stared at the box in absolute silence while the fire crackled behind them. Then, inexplicably, she started crying. It was the first sign of emotion either had seen from her, and they were stunned into paralysis.

"Luna?" Harry asked after a moment. "What…did we do something wrong?"

"Mum had a pair like these," Luna said. She slowly stopped crying, and then sat and stared at the floor another moment until all sign of her emotional outburst was gone. "This is a truly lovely gift. Thank you both."

Harry and Ginny both took a spot on either side of the girl. "Luna," Ginny said, "I know you're our Controller. You're our teammate. But you're also our friend. Please don't ever doubt that."

"You're my frame of reference," Luna said to her.

"Luna," Harry said as he gently pulled her chin until she faced him, "you're our friend. And we're yours."

"Thank you," Luna said. "I've not had friends before. I'm not sure how to handle them."

Harry grinned at her. "Just ask yourself what Harry or Ginny would do."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

"How did you like your gifts, Harry? Ginny?" Adonis said the day after Boxing Day.

Harry lifted the two wrist wand holsters and the second wand. "I'm amazed," he said. "I thought wands chose the wizard?"

"Master crafters sufficiently versed in wand lore can duplicate the signature of an existing wand," Lockhart said. "Those with means who lose their wands often get the wand remade anew. In this case, those wands are different than your originals, but have a similar enough magical signature to match your own. It's important to keep a hold-out wand you're comfortable with. My second wand has saved my life more than once."

Adonis looked around before confirming that Luna was in her dorm room. "I understand our little Luna showed some emotion yesterday."

"She cried," Ginny said. "Our gift reminded her of her mum."

Adonis nodded thoughtfully. "Xenophilius brought me into the program and almost raised me. His wife Celene pampered me shamelessly. I'll admit before 'Dite, I had something of a school boy crush on Celene. Her death was a blow to all of us, but especially to Luna. I can say that since her death Luna has never shown any sign of grief or remorse at all. The fact that she cried in front of you is a remarkable thing."

"She said she can't love," Harry said.

"Perhaps not as you or Ginevra might," Adonis said, "but she can fall into 'Need'. By that she can form a dependent relationship on those around her. It is like the love of a very young child—a child can never truly understand the depth of the emotion you feel, but that child still loves and depends on you in their own way. Emotionally, Luna is a very young child. And emotionally she is utterly dependent on her anchors."

Adonis took a deep breath. "I now you're all young yet, but you should be aware that this need may express itself physically in the future."

Harry turned bright red.

"Ahh, she's already spoken of it," the Unspeakable said.

"She said she'd do anything I asked her," Harry said. At Ginny's expression he added quickly, "I didn't ask her to do anything."

"I know you didn't," Adonis said. "This is one area where the healers were a little concerned and believed you would make a good anchor for her. Still, we do have a few years before it begins in earnest. They suspect that at fifteen or sixteen, she will try to sexually imprint herself on both of you."

"What's that mean?"

"I have no idea," Adonis admitted. "And frankly neither do the healers, at least not for sure. We'll just have to deal with it when it comes. In the meantime, let's see how that Tai Chi is coming."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The students returned and classes resumed. Adonis in his guise as a foolish braggart managed to convince Dumbledore to allow a duelling club for all students of any year.

"I want you to see how your peers are doing," Adonis told them privately. "After this fiasco, we will be practicing duelling. Now, just so you're aware, Snape will be there as well. I'm afraid I'm going to have to let him beat me. Don't do or say anything to blow cover."

And so when the day of the duelling club meeting arrived, students from all houses and all years gathered. Adonis assumed his Lockhart persona seamlessly, strutting about the improvised duelling platform in his garish robes. "Can everyone hear me? Can everyone see me?"

The duelling "demonstration" against Snape would have been horridly embarrassing for Adonis if Ginny and Harry didn't know what he was truly capable of.

Once the demonstration was completed Adonis pretended to choose Harry and Ron for the first duelling pair, but made sure to stand directly in front of Snape when he did so. Snape quickly overrode him and selected Draco as Harry's opponent.

Ginny smirked—it was a masterful bit of manipulation on Adonis's part.

She then stood with Hermione, Ron, Neville and the others as Harry and Draco assumed opposite ends of the platform. At the professor's prodding the two gave cursory bows to each other before Draco immediately snapped of a disarming hex.

"Ruddy git," Ron muttered.

Ginny, though, simply watched as Harry side-stepped the spell. She turned and noticed Ron and Hermione both blinking in surprise, and realized the two would never have thought about just stepping out of the way.

Harry snapped off his own disarming charm, and Draco demonstrated his own family training in ducking under the spell. In seconds the two were exchanging red and orange spells at each other, moving about the narrow platform.

Realizing he was at an impasse with a muggle-raised wizard who should not have known how to duel, Draco cast a different spell, "_Serpensortia_!"

A huge snake flew from the tip of his wand and surged right at Harry.

Ginny heard, just like Ron and Hermione and every other student, as Harry hissed at the snake. Only, it wasn't just hissing. The slithering sound echoed through the chamber, enhanced with magic. The snake came to an abrupt stop and raised its head from the ground. Harry hissed again at the snake, which turned around and started slithering back to the now wide-eyed Draco.

Harry did not hesitate to take advantage of the distraction and quietly incanted, "_Expelliarmus_! _Stupefy_!"

The one spell flew on the tail of the other. The first ripped Draco's wand from his hand while tossing him bodily in the air. The second hit him while his feet were already off the ground and the effect was much like a Quaffle rising in the air shortly before being struck by a beater's bat. Draco rose up on his feet and then jerked and flew straight back into several of his fellow Slytherins. Draco's wand flew end-over-end until Harry deftly snatched it from the air.

Glaring, Snape quickly banished the snake while Lockhart started clapping. "Bravo! Bravo, Harry. Keep that up, and someday you may duel almost as well as me! And you're a Parselmouth as well! That is an extremely rare talent, my young friend. Did you know in parts of India they would pay you your weight in gold to take advantage of that talent?"

Harry looked from the DADA professor to the frightened eyes of his classmates, and understood. Though he did not understand why, he could see they saw something wrong with his speaking to the snake. "Thank you, Professor."

"Blimey!" Ron said a little pale when Harry climbed down. "Why didn't you tell me you were a Parselmouth?"

"Is that what it's called?" Harry asked. "Honestly, I thought all wizards could do it."

"No, not all," Ginny said. "The last Parselmouth was Voldemort."

All those around her gasped at the name. Ginny rolled her eyes. "Come on, Harry. Let's get out of here."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

That evening after dinner Harry sulked during his "detention". "Draco was just as good as I was," he said.

Adonis shrugged. "Of course, I'm sure he's received extra tutoring from his godfather."

"Godfather?" Ginny asked.

"Severus Snape," Luna noted. "Snape was a Death Eater and a class mate of Lucius Malfoy."

Harry felt his eyes bulge. "Snape was a Death Eater?"

"Supposedly he was Dumbledore's spy," Adonis said as he strode into the class and locked the door. All hint of the Lockhart persona faded. "Harry, did you know you were a Parselmouth?"

"No sir."

"Have you ever spoken to a snake before?"

"Err, once, at the zoo during my cousin's birthday. It didn't talk back, but it understood me. I didn't realize I was speaking any different. In my mind I'm just speaking English."

"It was the spookiest thing I've heard," Ginny shuddered.

"I thought it sounded quite lovely," Luna said. "It reminds me of the nargle song."

The three of them turned to study her for a moment, but she ignored them and continued working her ever-present cryptogram.

"Is it a problem?" Harry finally asked.

"Well, it's a puzzle," Adonis admitted. "I was close friends with your father for many years, Harry. I know for a fact that Parseltongue is an inherited trait. In Britain, the only family known to have that trait were the Gaunt family—the last vestige of the Slytherin line. Tom Riddle was the last son born of the Gaunt line. However, it may also be a boon."

He walked to his desk, performed a series of complex charms on one drawer before opening a drawer and removing the diary Ginny gave him at the beginning of last term.

"I took this to the DoM shortly after you gave it to me," Adonis said. "We learned many things from it."

"Such as?" Harry asked.

Adonis motioned for them to sit. "Voldemort created this diary when he was a student. We know that Riddle was one of the best students the school ever had, and was at one point a protégé of Dumbledore himself. However, during his years here there was a murder. There was no sign of magic on the girl—no residue from a killing curse or any other sign of death. However, she was surely dead. After playing along with the personality matrix in the book, we determined that she was killed by a basilisk that Riddle himself released. He then framed a fellow student, Rubeus Hagrid, for the crime."

Harry blinked. "Hagrid was framed for murder?"

"Had his wand snapped and served a term in Azkaban. Hagrid has a well known penchant for dangerous creatures and the murder was blamed on an Acromantula he was keeping. The issue at hand, however, is that we believe the basilisk is still under the school in Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets. It is a continuous risk to this school and all in it. And only a Parselmouth can open the chamber."

Ginny looked long and hard at Harry, before turning back to the book. "How did he make the diary?"

"With the murder of a fellow student," Adonis said. "This diary is a Horcrux, and now that we know this much, so many things have become clear. A Horcrux is an anchor for a wizard's soul. It is made with some of the most horrific dark magic you can imagine. The cold blooded murder is just the start. It also involves emasculation."

"What's that?" Harry asked.

"He cut his own bits off," Luna said absently without looking up from his book.

Harry gulped and paled.

"Sexual organs hold the promise of reproduction," Adonis explained. "Reproduction is the natural form of continual life. You live on through your progeny. Riddle did not want to live on through progeny, he wanted to live on by himself, and so one of the preparatory acts leading up to being able to create one or more Horcruxes involves the irreversible sacrifice of his sexuality. Not that he ever used it, as far as we can tell."

"That's really gross," Harry finally managed to say.

"But it explains why Voldemort did not die when he attacked you," Adonis said. "And I think it also explains a great deal of the headmaster's behaviour toward you, Harry."

"What do you mean?"

Adonis very sombrely reached out to touch Harry's scar. "Voldemort made more than one Horcrux, Harry, of that we're sure. In fact, he may have made several. And on October 31, 1981, upon murdering your father and mother, he made another in you. It explains so very much."

Harry felt his knees give. He blinked and found himself sitting on the floor, with Ginny on one side of him and Luna on the other. "I'm a …Horcrux?"

"That's why your fate has been bound to Voldemort's," Adonis said sadly. "No child deserves the burden placed on you, Harry, but when I agreed to train you and Ginny my one condition was no lies. I may not tell you everything, but I will never lie to you."

"So how do you kill him?" Ginny asked.

"His Horcruxes must be destroyed first," Adonis said.

"But if I'm a Horcrux…" Harry couldn't finish the sentence.

Luna however could. "Yes, Harry. For Voldemort to die, you must die as well."

* * *

**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Mihir, AKA Teufel1987, for beta reading and Brit picking. Any inconsistency in British v American spelling is entirely my fault. Thanks, Teufel!


	7. The Chamber of Secrets

Chap 6 Review responses are available in my forums here on ff dot net.

* * *

**Chapter Seven: The Chamber of Secrets**

Harry walked out of the classroom in a daze. He was aware of people talking to him and thought he nodded back, but he could not bring himself to speak.

He moved stiff-legged through the halls until he reached a set of stairs and started climbing. He did not stop until he found himself atop the astronomy tower. The telescopes were all stored since there was no class that night, so he had the tower to himself. He staggered to the parapet and stared out across the valley.

The sun had set and the half-moon was out, casting the valley into a world of silvery shadow. He barely saw it, though. Luna's voice continued to ring in his head.

He did not know how long he stood on the top of the tower, but after what felt like the whole night he felt a small hand on one shoulder, then another on the other. Very slowly he turned to see Luna and Ginny standing side by side, looking at him.

He slid down to the floor with his back to the parapet, and the two girls knelt down on either side of him. "I don't want to die," Harry whispered. He was surprised at how hoarse and thick his voice sounded in the cold evening air.

Ginny's lip trembled and her eyes grew moist. Luna simply looked at him closely.

"Dying isn't so bad," she said softly. "When Mum died, the backlash killed me for a few minutes before Dad revived me. It was so peaceful. No pain, no tears. Mum was there, whispering to me that I couldn't come with her. I wanted very much to go with her, but she would not let me."

"Harry," Ginny whispered.

"I don't…." Harry couldn't speak any more. Nor could he hold back the tears.

He did not resist when Ginny hugged him, nor when Luna did the same. Ginny cried right along with him, while Luna just held them both in silence. After a few minutes the worst of the fit passed. Luna sat back on her haunches and looked at the other two.

"Soul energy is a mysterious thing," she said. She gently touched his scar. "Not even the wisest wizards can claim to know everything about how soul energy works. Adonis does not expect you to kill yourself, Harry. You don't have to die to fight Voldemort or his principles. He was a threat during the first war not just because of his power, but also because of his supporters. If we can neutralize his support, then that makes it much more likely we can contain Voldemort himself. For instance, did you know Gellert Grindelwald is still alive?"

That brought both Harry and Ginny up in surprise. "No," Ginny said. "Dumbledore defeated him in a duel."

"And let him live," Luna said. "He is at Nurmengard even now, all these years later. Grindelwald was a sport too, Harry. But Dumbledore did not kill him. It's possible to defeat Voldemort without having to kill him. You could live a long and happy life with Voldemort behind prison runes. You and Ginny could have as many children as Mrs. Weasley and be wildly happy. I've been told such a life is possible."

Harry felt Ginny pull away a little in discomfort at the words Luna used. The blonde herself seemed to be staring into space while she spoke. With a shudder she brought herself back into focus. "The point is your scar is not a death sentence. It's a burden, but it is also a possible tactical advantage in the coming war. Don't let it consume your life."

Harry and Ginny stared at the other girl in awe. "Luna," he said, "how can you be so smart?"

She blinked owlishly back at him with a slight tilt to her head. "I don't believe I am smarter than either of you. I just don't have the burden of trying to think through emotions or hormones."

"Must be nice," Ginny muttered.

"I wouldn't know." Luna sounded faintly lost.

"Well, regardless, thank you," Harry said. He wiped his nose on his sleeve, "Both of you, for coming up here. I…I do feel a little better. I just don't know what I'd do without you?"

"You would be at the mercy of Dumbledore," Luna said. "He obviously knows about the Horcrux, and quite likely does plan on you martyring yourself in order to finish Voldemort. Good thing Adonis and I came after you, isn't it?"

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The week after Gryffindor plastered the Hufflepuffs in Quidditch, leaving only the Ravenclaws between them and the Quidditch Cup, Harry snuck out of his room to find Ginny waiting nervously. She looked at him with wide eyes and he merely nodded before pulling her close and draping the two of them in his invisibility cloak.

They snuck out together and made their way through the darkened halls. Once they had to hide from Filch, but the old squib continued on his way while muttering incoherently to himself. Once clear, they continued through the halls and up the stairs until they reached the second floor girl's bathroom, where Adonis and Luna waited for them. They didn't even bother to question how Luna escaped from her dorm.

The moment they entered, a shrill voice cried out, "Who's there! Have you come to laugh at poor Moaning Myrtle?"

The ghost of a girl in old Ravenclaw robes emerged from a toilet to glare at the three comers.

"Ahh, Riddle's first victim," Adonis said. "I wasn't aware you chose to become a ghost."

"Well of course, I had to haunt Olive Hornby!" Moaning Myrtle said snappishly. "The foul witch always used to laugh at me and make fun of me. Fat Myrtle! Miserable, moaning, moping Myrtle! Well, I showed her when she found my body."

Ginny and Harry shared a long look.

"So what'chya doing?" the ghost said, shifting instantly from her rant to a sickly sweet voice.

"We're going to kill the creature that took your life," Adonis said.

"Really? Ooooh, it was dreadful. It happened right in here. I died in this very cubicle. I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying. I heard a sound and then _Poof_, I was dead. Just like that,"

"You were killed by a basilisk under the control of Tom Riddle."

The ghost stared at them. "Tom? Tom wouldn't have done that. He was the only one who was ever nice to me. He was the one that told me about this bathroom as a good place to hide. We even tried sleeping together." She gushed about what should have been intensely personal information as if she were discussing the weather. "But he wasn't able to finish. I didn't laugh at him at all. I was so happy he even tried with me. He took very good care of me."

"I'm sure he did," Adonis said. He turned to Harry.

Harry shrugged and looked around the room. It was Luna, though, who directed his attention to the snake-shaped faucets in the girl's sink. "Think so?" he asked.

Luna merely nodded.

"Open," Harry hissed, switching unconsciously to Parseltongue.

The whole sink began to sink into the ground with a deep grating sound of stone sliding against stone. Behind it they discovered a black hole. "Harry," Adonis said, "ask for stairs."

Harry did so, and a set of stairs appeared leading down in a spiral to the cavern.

"Does Harry really have to go with you?" Ginny asked.

"Unfortunately he does," Adonis said.

"Then I'm going to," Ginny said.

"Me too," Luna said. "I've never seen a basilisk. Father would be so interested."

"I would expect no less," Adonis said with a satisfied nod. "Before we go, I do have some things to give you. Here."

He handed out three sets of what looked like muggle military helmets with huge binoculars on them. "Those are charmed to act similar to muggle military infrared and thermal scopes. In effect, it will show you heat signatures and light in a different range than what we see. It should protect you from the gaze of the basilisk since it will show you a magically filtered image of the basilisk rather than the beast itself."

He put his own on and made a point of strapping it on. "Before we go down, I need to impress upon the three of you how very dangerous this is. Not only can the basilisk kill with a glance, it has some of the most deadly venom known, and is large enough to eat all of you with a single bite. Once we reach the cavern and locate the snake, you are to find a small corner and hide under the cloak. You are not to attempt to engage the animal."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to kill it, of course. Some beasts are too dangerous to live in proximity to others." He looked from one to the other. "Are you ready?"

The three kids nodded after strapping their strange helmets on.

"Very good, let's go down."

The walk seemed to take forever. All four of them cast lighting charms on their wands, but even then the gloom seemed almost like a living thing, nipping at their heels with malicious intent all the way down into the dark, dank caverns under the castle.

They walked in silence, awed by the sheer scope of the caverns, until they found the first evidence of the basilisk.

"Oh Merlin," Ginny whispered.

It was a snake skin—a snake skin that was at least thirty feet long, and it looked old. That meant whichever animal shed it was probably larger still. When they were able to tear their eyes from the skin, they saw the piles of skeletons that dirtied the floor. Ginny let out a little yelp and Harry made a startled grunt when they realized they had been walking on bones.

"It's all right, children," Adonis said calmly.

"You ever fight a basilisk before?" Harry asked.

"Heavens no," Adonis said with a tense laugh. "Did trifle with a chimera in Turkey once. I'm sorry to say I am unable to recommend the experience. But the basilisks have one weakness that we can exploit."

"What's that?"

"The crowing of a cock," he said. "The sound is quite painful to them. Unlike myth, it will not actually kill a basilisk, but it will hurt them sufficiently to give me the time I need."

They finally came to a monolithic door covered in relief carvings of snakes. "Harry?" Adonis said.

"_Open_," Harry hissed in Parseltongue.

With a shrieking squeal, the doors swung inward. The moment they did so, firelight bloomed on either side of the walls to illuminate a massive cavernous room. The three stepped in slowly. "Harry, Ginevra, Luna, under the cloak now," Adonis ordered firmly.

Harry nodded, took Ginny in one arm and Luna in the other, and threw the cloak over the three of them. Adonis approached with his helmet and head gear on, his wand out. At the far end of the cavern the children could see the huge statue of Salazar Slytherin himself. The statue presented the ancient wizard with a harsh, unyielding expression.

As soon as Adonis came in range, he levelled his wand at the statue's jaw and shot off the strongest blasting charm he could.

Salazar Slytherin's jaw evaporated in a shower of dust. As soon as the rock settled, they could all hear a prolonged hiss, followed by a scraping sound, as if a thousand scales were sliding against rock.

In the far corner, Harry could hear a deep, murderous voice screaming, _"Kill! Rend! Man flesh to eat. I can smell the man flesh!"_

"Harry?" Ginny whispered when she felt him tense.

"I can hear it," he said. "It sounds evil."

The three children watched as their mentor stood alone in the middle of the cavern armed only with a wand, while before him a monster gathered to attack. The snake took almost a minute to fully emerge, coiling in on itself until it rose up from the center of the coil and towered above the wizard.

Through their scopes, they could see the eyes of the beast shining a brilliant white through their thermal sensors. The gaze of the beast was blazingly hot. It became agitated when the gaze did not seem to affect Adonis, though.

It opened its jaw to strike, and that's when Adonis made his first move. He conjured a rooster, which immediately began to crow.

The basilisk froze for a second, and then started writhing in pain and anger. Adonis took off in a side-ways run and conjured another rooster. The bird seemed to have an instinctive need to crow and immediately started making the same racket as the first. A third soon followed.

The basilisk slammed down with its body and crushed the first of the roosters. By then four more were crowing and Adonis had begun to run back the other way in a parabolic course around where the beast writhed. He ran at full speed even while his wand continued conjuring more of the birds.

When the basilisk was on the ground, rolling in a desperate attempt to crush all the crowing roosters, Adonis turned his wand onto one of the many twelve-foot high cobra statues that lined the hall. The statue flew into the air to a spot over where the basilisk writhed. Adonis then began what in Harry eyes was the most advanced and awe inspiring bit of transfiguration he had ever seen.

The statue began morphing into something silver and sharp. It took only a moment for the masonry to change to a giant machete that hung like the sword of Damocles over the writhing serpent.

The last rooster died with a squawk. Freed at last from the hateful sound, the basilisk turned its attention to the wizard. Its eyes were glowing with killing magic and hatred. Venom was literally dripping from its fangs.

Adonis let the blade go. Gravity took its course and the one-ton blade fell without a sound. It struck the snake's neck right behind its eyes. It slid down almost without resistance, driven by its own weight and the sharpness of the blade, until it cleaved almost a foot into the floor itself.

The magic in the eyes died immediately as the basilisk's head rolled away from its body. Almost immediately the blade shimmered back into a cracked statue.

Adonis straightened and simply stood for a moment looking at the snake before he pulled the diary Horcrux from his robes. He stepped to the basilisk head, with its still open mouth, and pushed the book up against one of the dripping fangs.

Everyone in the hall heard a distant scream of rage. Adonis jumped back and dropped the book as black, ink-like blood began pouring from it. The three children ran from their hiding places and arrived in time to see a ghostly figure of a handsome boy rising up from the punctured book. His ethereal face was contorted by pain and rage, but his screams sounded distant and weak.

Finally the ghost faded into nothingness as the Horcrux died.

"Well, two Hippogriphs with one spell," Adonis said with forced levity. He turned to the children. "Are you all right?" he asked.

"That was brilliant," Harry gushed.

"Bravest thing I've ever seen," Ginny added. "It's a shame you can't put that into one of your books. That truly was a brave thing worth bragging about."

Adonis stared down at the kids with a blank expression for a moment. "True bravery doesn't require bragging. Bravery is being scared out of your wits at the thought of doing something, but doing it anyway because you have too. This is my job."

With that Adonis walked past them and out the entrance of the chamber. Ginny and Harry followed in quiet contemplation, and not a little awe. Luna for her part whistled a jaunty tune as she picked up the destroyed diary before following.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The last game of the year was against a very good Ravenclaw team. Like Gryffindor, the Ravens were unbeaten and hungry for the Quidditch cup. They also had sufficient points that the Quidditch cup would put them in the uncontested lead for the House Cup. Gryffindor was in the same position. Both teams realized this game was not just about Quidditch. This was about the House Cup itself.

The Ravenclaws came out flying like professionals, and Harry knew he was about to play the toughest game in his life. "You ready?" he asked. Though he directed the question to all of his chasers (he'd begun to think of them as his chasers since Ron had started coaching him in coordinated seeker/chaser moves), his eyes were squarely on Ginny.

She set her jaw and nodded. "It's a job we've got to do," she said, clearly giving him the message that she was nervous, but was going to do her best anyway.

Both of them looked at the stands where, in the middle of several unhappy Ravenclaws, Luna Lovegood sat wearing a very large hat with a lion's head on it that roared every few moments.

"You know," Ginny said, "if everyone in Ravenclaw weren't so bloody scared of her, I bet they'd make her life really hard."

"Why would they be scared of a first year?" Angelina asked.

"Ask Alicia," Katie said darkly. Evidently word of Luna's conversation with the former chaser had leaked out. She looked at Ginny and said, "Weasley, if I didn't know any better, I'd say she was trying to open a spot for you."

"Katie," Harry said, "I swear to you we had no idea what she was up to."

"We?" Angelina asked with an arched brow.

"We," Ginny said firmly. "Harry and I are friends. He knew I wanted to play. But we didn't know she was going to do that. After this year, if you want, I'll resign from the team. I want the best person to play, and if you guys think that's Alicia then I'll be glad to step down. I would never take someone's spot if they were the better player."

"We'll talk about it later," Angelina said. "Not right before the last game of the year."

While the two teams engaged in their game, Adonis sat in the teacher's box watching intently. He felt an old hand on his shoulders and turned to see the headmaster's blue eyes boring into his. "Gilderoy, I'm wondering if I might have a word with you."

"Certainly," Adonis said with the appropriate aplomb. He followed the headmaster out of the stands to the grassy hills beyond the pitch. It was a beautiful day in early May with all the promise of spring. Still chilly, with air made heavy from the morning's rain.

"Gilderoy, I've read your books, and I'm afraid I've noticed certain inconsistencies. Such as the fact you purportedly fought the Wagga Wagga Werewolf and the Yetis of Shangri-La at approximately the same time. Moreover, since I've met the Yetis of Shangri-La and know them to actually be quite gentle and intelligent beings, I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that your books are not entirely accurate."

Adonis drew himself up to his not quite inconsiderable height and said, "Just what are you trying to say, Headmaster?"

"We thank you for your service this year, Gilderoy, but your contract will not be renewed."

"Well, I never…you have no idea what you are losing, headmaster!"

"Oh, I think I do. Good day, Gilderoy."

The headmaster turned and walked back to the teacher's box. Gilderoy followed at a more sedate pace. The meeting had gone pretty much as expected. He was about to return to his own seat when he sensed a shimmer of non-human magic near the base of the stands. He closed his eyes, reaching out with his own magic until he felt the alien intrusion. With a quick flick of his holster, his wand was in his hand and a paralysis hex was flying through the air.

He heard a startled gasp and walked over to find a poor-looking house elf crying piteously on the ground.

"So you must be the little bugger that charmed the Bludger, and tried to close the portal to the train platform," Adonis said. "I had quite a hard time undoing that charm before the kids arrived, I'll have you know."

The elf stared at him fearfully, "Must save Harry Potter," it mewled pitifully, "Great danger at Hogwarts..."

"Yes, there was." Adonis squatted down beside the creature and removed the diary. It had a blackened hole in the middle. "Do you know what this was, elf?"

The creature's eyes bulged out even larger than normal as it nodded.

"Was this the danger you were trying to protect Harry from?"

Again, a nod.

"And you know where it came from, don't you?"

"Dobby cannot say," the elf said.

"No, I know you can't. Nor do you have to. Take this back to your master, elf. Tell him that Dumbledore knows who he is, and that the book has been destroyed, as has Slytherin's monster. Tell him that for me, will you?"

"Wizard means that Harry Potter is safe?"

"Harry Potter is safe," Adonis said calmly. "But he may not always be. If you are ever freed for any reason, you come to me. Do you understand?"

"Dobby understands."

"Good. Take this now. And return to your master." Adonis handed the diary over, and with a pop Dobby disappeared. If Dobby had bothered to look, he would have seen a dainty silver-trimmed sock in the book. However, he did not look.

Back in the pitch, Harry acted as a fulcrum for passes from his chasers. He shadowed them from above so that every time one of the girls got in trouble they passed the Quaffle to him, and he would immediately pass it to another of the chasers. So far it had netted them ten goals. It also allowed Harry to continue to look for the snitch against the Ravenclaw seeker, a third year girl named Cho Chang.

He saw the shimmer on the edge of the stands across the pitch. Cho had not seen it yet.

Though the Gryffindor offence was effective, so was the Ravenclaw attack. The score was neck and neck, with Gryffindor down by ten. Whoever caught the snitch would win the game, the Quidditch Cup and the House Cup.

There was no room for mercy.

Harry tore away from the chaser formation and started flying straight down. Fifty feet away, he could hear Cho gasping. She leaned low over her broom and darted after him. She had a very good angle of attack, but the distance was such that Harry actually slowed down. He reached out a hand as if to grab the snitch, even while looking through his brows at where the real snitch hovered near the stands.

Cho was almost on top of him. Whatever else could be said for the Ravenclaw's new seeker, she was a very fast, very capable flier. He waited until the last second, pretending to strain in reach for a snitch that wasn't there, before he abruptly pulled back up.

He heard Cho make a strangled cry of surprise before she hit the cushioning charms on the ground and tumbled from her broom. The crowd roared as Harry darted up toward where the snitch really was. It started to pull away, but not soon enough. With a quick swipe of his hand, Gryffindor won by a hundred and forty points.

He flew back down to the pitch where Cho was picking herself up. "You okay?" he asked her.

"Fine!" she snapped angrily, "Just fine. That trick won't work again, Potter!"

"I know," he said. "You're a good flier. Next year will be fun."

By then the rest of the Gryffindors reached him in wild celebration.

That night, after much of the house was inebriated with Butterbeer and even a little firewhiskey the twins snuck in, Harry and Ginny hid under his cloak and snuck out to their unused classroom.

Luna and Adonis were waiting for them.

"Well," Adonis began, "it has been an interesting year, hasn't it?"

The two nodded, waiting for the news.

"Of course, Dumbledore has sacked me, but I believe we knew this would happen. I have a very good line on next year's teacher, however, and I'll admit I'm pleased. So pleased that we may actually contact him and perhaps bring him into the program. He's not particularly powerful, but he is very knowledgeable. In the meantime, we must discuss this summer."

"I'm going back to the Dursleys," Harry said sadly.

"Did they really lock you in your room last year," Ginny asked.

Harry nodded, "Yeah. Put bars on the window, too."

"Well, that won't do," Adonis said. "Harry, the protections on that house are sufficiently powerful that in this one case I agree with Dumbledore that you need to remain there long enough to recharge the wards. However, I believe it has been quite irresponsible for the headmaster to not see that you are treated well. He does have spies around the property, but even so I think I shall have a talk with the Dursleys. However, we also need to discuss you, Miss Weasley."

"Me?"

"Your family is going to win a lottery held in Mr. Weasley's office. The family will take a vacation to Egypt to visit your brother Bill."

"How do you…"

"Everything has been arranged," Adonis said. "However, I'm afraid you will catch the wizarding measles and be unable to go. Your good friend Luna and her father will volunteer to watch you while they are gone for the summer."

"You mean I can't visit Bill?" Ginny asked sadly.

"You could," Adonis said. "You're not yet twelve, Ginevra. I won't make you do this. However, if you do stay, that means intensive training with Luna and Harry over the whole summer."

"Me?" Harry asked, "How?"

"Something we'll discuss with the Dursleys," Adonis promised, "Ginevra? This is optional of course."

Ginny looked at Luna and Harry, and nodded. "Okay," she finally said. "If it were Bill, he'd do the same thing."

"Good girl," Adonis said with approval. "Well, you go home tomorrow, so I wish you all a happy journey. Mr. Potter, expect me to arrive at your house in three day's time. I may even bring Miss Lovegood along as well. Do not tell the Dursleys I am arriving."

"Promise," Harry said.

"Then for now, goodbye. I shall see you all very soon."

* * *

~~**Author's Note** ~~

Very special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and also to JR Richardson and Miles for additional beta reading. It made for a much better chapter all around! There were also several questions regarding shipping. Responses as stated above are in my forums here on ff dot net.

Thank you for reading.


	8. Summer Holidays

Chapter 6 review responses are available on my forum here on ff dot net. Also, an important author's notes is at the end.

* * *

**Chapter Eight: Summer Holidays**

The ride home was very uncomfortable, and Harry wasn't sure what to do about it.

The problem was between Luna and Hermione. The two were like oil and water. Or more like water and cats. Hermione cringed every time Luna opened her mouth to make an odd or seemingly out of place observation. Ron seemed oblivious while Neville was too nice to say anything.

Harry watched the two from his position beside Ginny with a worried expression. Hermione was a true friend and someone he cared a great deal for, but he also had developed a great affection for Luna. Her strange observations were even beginning to make sense, especially when taken into the context of her unique perspective.

More importantly, after a full year of training he considered Luna a teammate, as he did with Ginny. They were more than just friends, Ginny and Luna had become an extension of him. He realized on that trip that the two young girls had supplanted Hermione and Ron as his best friends, and it actually made him very sad, both for himself and for Hermione.

He knew she still had difficulty making friends herself and her circle of friends was not so large that she could easily afford to lose one.

It was obvious, though, that she could not stand being close to him if Luna was nearby.

Tiring of the strain and bickering, mid-way through the train ride Harry got up and walked out with the excuse of visiting the loo. In actuality he walked toward the luggage car and stepped out between the cars themselves.

It was raining outside, a cool late spring rain. However, the charms on the train kept him dry.

A moment later the door behind him opened. He fought not to bite his lip when Hermione stepped outside with him. She did not say anything at first. Rather, she simply stood leaning against the railing while the northern English countryside slid past. Even the sound of the train was muted by the charms.

She stared at him for the longest time before she asked, "Why not me?"

Desperate for time to think up a plausible excuse, Harry said, "What do you mean?"

"Those weren't detentions," Hermione finally said. "I followed you and Ginny, Harry. Not every night, but more than once. I saw you go into the classroom with Lockhart and that Lovegood girl. You've been doing something all year with two first year girls and a blatant fraud, and I want to know why. And more importantly, why aren't Ron and I a part of it. Or…" She shook her head and suddenly sniffed and wiped away a tear, "Why not me?"

Looking at the girl who helped him so much in first year, Harry realized with absolute certainty that he could not lie to her. That he did not want to lie to her. She was still one of his very best friends. "It could have been you," he said softly. "They were looking at the best pairings based on power and personality, and you were one of three possibilities."

"Luna was the other?"

"Luna and Ginny,"

"Who made this determination?"

"I can't tell you," Harry said honestly.

Hermione's eyes widened. "You're joking…"

"I'm serious, Hermione. I can't tell you."

"What about Luna?"

"She's a part of our team. But more than that—she needs us. She needs us to know how to deal with other people."

"When did this happen?" Hermione asked. Her lower lip was trembling.

"Last year. Lockhart put a charm on me in Diagon Alley, and Luna put the charms on the cabin Ginny and I ended up on. The charm caused us to be really honest with each other."

"Aren't we honest?" Hermione said. It came out almost as a plea.

Unable to withstand her pleading, Harry stepped toward her and wrapped her up in a hug. It was only the second time he ever hugged her, and he thought it odd that she was actually a little taller as he was. Ginny and Luna were both shorter and fit so much more comfortably in his arms….

"Hermione," he said, "what I'm telling you cannot be repeated to anyone, not even Professor Dumbledore."

"Harry, what…"

"We know why Voldemort didn't truly die when he attacked me. He created anchors to hold his soul on this earth. One of those anchors is in my scar."

Her eyes flicked to the scar as if pulled out of her conscious control. "I'm going to have to fight him," Harry continued. "Our fates are linked. So some people are trying to help me."

"But why Ginny?"

"She used to sneak out and ride her brother's brooms as a child. She would pull pranks even on the twins, and get away with it. She is willing the break rules if she needs to without it eating away at her. She's willing to do whatever she thinks needs to be done, rules be damned. Hermione, can you honestly say that you would have helped Hagrid with the dragon last year if not for Ron and me? Would you have helped save the Stone?"

Hermione shook her head. "But Harry, I went with you. I went."

"And I love you for it," Harry admitted. "You and Ron are the best friends I've ever had. But you should know that in the next few years, I'm going to be fighting a war. Whether I want to or not, the war is going to come after me. I'm going to be killing people. I already have—remember Quirrell? And Hermione … I can't stand the thought of you or Ron being hurt. This isn't a fight you have to be a part of."

"So now it's Ginny's fight, Or Luna's?"

"Ginny's father is already a target," Harry said. "And if Voldemort ever found out just how powerful she is going to be, she would be anyway. And Luna … Hermione, please don't try fighting Luna. Please don't."

"Why? She's half my size and I daresay I have more magical power."

"Because Luna could cut your throat, bathe in your blood and then kiss your parents on the cheeks without thinking twice," Harry said with a serious expression. "She threatened to kill Alicia Spinnet's sister to get her off the Quidditch team, and she would have. Luna is completely amoral. The accident that killed her mother hurt her too, and affected her mind."

Hermione stared incredulously at her friend. "And you're hanging around with her?"

"Our trainers were hoping that Ginny and I could act as social anchors for her, to help guide her in interacting with others. She has no built in moral compass, so instead she asks herself what Ginny and I would do. She is also brilliant, Hermione ... Brilliant in a way that is as frightening as her willingness to do violence. And when we start fighting, she's exactly who Ginny and I will need to guide and advise us, to protect us and be a part of us. We're a team now."

"You're children," Hermione said. She was angry, and that anger burned away her tears. "What kind of ministry would recruit children?"

"I could be really powerful," Harry said softly. "But with the Dursleys starving and beating me, I would never reach my full potential. Dumbledore was probably going to make me face Voldemort without training, so I and the Horcrux—the soul anchor —in my scar could die like good little pawns, and allow him to come along and finish the job. I don't want to die, Hermione. And with Luna and Ginny at my side, I may not have to. Our team has the greatest chance of victory over Voldemort. More than fifty-percent better odds than a team of you, Ron and me, or of you, Luna and me."

Hermione shook her head and turned away from him to stare out over the countryside. "So you're saying there's no room for me, aren't you?"

"Not like before," Harry said. "I'm sorry, Hermione."

She bowed he head. "Just leave me alone, please Harry?"

He nodded and left the platform. A few minutes later, the door opened again. "Harry, I asked you to leave me alone."

"And I'm sure he will," came the airy response.

Hermione turned around and nearly screamed when she found a large silver knife pressed to her throat. Silver-blue eyes stared up at her unblinkingly. "He does love you, but I'm sure you've realized this."

"What…what are you doing?"

"Protecting the team," Luna said. "It is my job, after all, to remove any threat to the team. I could cut your throat and transfigure your body to a log of wood. No one would ever find you. The school would be concerned, of course, but the Ministry wouldn't care because you are an untrained Muggleborn."

Hermione felt tears spring to her eyes again. "You're taking him away from me."

"Correction, I _have_ taken him away from you. It is done. He is ours now. And I will utterly destroy anyone who tries to take him back."

"Luna, I love him," Hermione whispered, admitting her feelings for the very first time.

"But you would've never ended up with him," Luna said. "You would wait and wait for him to notice you were a girl until you opened your eyes and realized that you were never a girl to him, you were his best friend. And you would look around and see that Ron has been pining over you, and see in Ron a boy you could reshape to your desire. You can train Ron, Hermione, but you will never be able to train Harry."

"Why are you saying this?"

"Because when I ask myself what Harry or Ginny would do, they would try to convince you that we are doing what must be done. Otherwise I would have killed you already. Talking can be ever such a bore."

"You wouldn't," Hermione breathed.

Luna took the knife from Hermione's hand, put the tip to her palm, and with agonizing slowness began to push the tip up.

"What are you doing?" Hermione shrieked in horror.

The blade continued moving until Luna's hand was completely impaled and the blood soaked tip sliced through the skin at the top of her pale hand. Blood began pouring out in rivulets. "For them," Luna said in a tight voice that betrayed none of the pain she had to be feeling. "I do this for them. Because they wouldn't want you hurt. I do this so you understand. I will do anything for them. _Anything .._. I would _die_ for them. I would _kill_ for them. I would slaughter newborns and their mothers _for them_. And I will _not_ let you interfere. When you go back inside you will go to the next cabin where Ron and Neville moved. I cast a repulsion charm on our cabin. You will not interfere again unless Harry or Ginny specifically ask for your help. You may be friendly with them because they do care for you, but you will not interfere again with things you do not understand."

Terrified in a way she had never experienced, all Hermione could do was nod.

Luna pulled the knife out of her hand with a sickened _slift_ sound. "Then I'm glad we talked. They do truly like you, and it would sadden them if I had to kill you. Good day." With that Luna removed her wand, cast a healing charm on her hand, and walked back into the train car.

Left alone, Hermione slid down the metal grating, buried her face in her hands, and cried.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Harry and Ginny looked up when Luna walked back in. "Where were you?"

"Talking with Hermione,"

His eyes widened. "Did you hurt her?"

"No," Luna said.

Ginny, however, noticed the blood that Luna's healing spell had not removed. With a cry of alarm, she took the other girl's hand in hers. "Luna, what happened?"

"I needed a means to convince her that I was serious," Luna said. "Since you would not want her hurt, I stabbed myself."

Harry blinked and then sat down on the other side of the girl. "Luna, you didn't have to do that!"

"Yes I did," Luna said. "Hermione is dogged. Her personality profile indicates she is unable to let go of problems. There is no such thing as a lingering break with her, Harry. It must be clear and definitive. And it is now."

All three looked at where the bushy-haired girl stepped past their cabin. She hesitated and looked in to see Harry and Ginny pouring over Luna's hand before she continued. "It will hurt her," Luna said, "but it is better for her to suffer emotional pain now rather than torture and death later at the hands of our enemies."

"But why did you do this to yourself?" Harry asked.

Luna blinked at him. "For you, of course, don't you remember, Harry? I will do anything for you and Ginny ... Absolutely _anything_."

"Oh Luna," Ginny said as she pulled the unblinking girl into a hug.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

"Bye Ginny," Harry said. He looked over her head at a confused-looking Ron and a teary-eyed Hermione. "Bye Ron, Hermione. I hope you guys have a great summer."

"Will we be seeing you later?" Ron asked.

"I don't know," Harry lied.

"Okay, mate. Take care.'

Harry stood and watched as the Weasleys congregated together and started on their way out. Mrs. Weasley of course hugged Harry, but had to immediately turn her attention to her own five children. Ginny did not turn around, as they had agreed.

He sighed as they disappeared and turned to look for his relatives. He was surprised to find Luna by his side. "Luna! Don't you have to find your dad?"

"I'll Floo home later," Luna said dismissively. "In the meantime, I wish to meet your relatives."

"Don't kill them."

"I won't. Adonis said I can accompany him when he gets you in a few days, though. I'm looking forward to that. Come, Harry, let's meet the Dursleys." She sounded positively happy; Harry looked and saw she had healed her hand.

Vernon, Petunia and Dudley Dursley were waiting near the far entrance of the station, eyeing the magicals distrustfully. Dudley was leaning against a brick wall and was sweating profusely.

"This is going to be fun," Luna noted.

Harry stared at her in some concern.

Suddenly she ran toward the Dursleys, launched herself into the air, and collided with Vernon in what looked like a hug. She wrapped her arms around his fat neck and her legs around his bulbous torso and squeezed.

Just as quickly she bounced off the puce-coloured man and assaulted Petunia in the same way. "Oh, Aunt Petunia!" she cried. "After this year I feel like I know you. It's so wonderful to finally meet the woman who raised The Boy Who Lived!"

"What is this trollop on about?" Vernon spat in anger.

Luna slid off the mortally embarrassed Petunia and turned to Dudley. "My my, what a big cousin you have, Harry." She smiled sweetly. "Did you know there is a spell that uses the boiled fat of an un-baptized boy that would allow us to fly without a broom? Dudley here has enough to float the Holyhead Harpies!"

"Mum!" Dudley said with alarm.

"Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, this is my friend Luna Lovegood."

Luna dropped into a perfect curtsey. "Charmed, I'm sure. And if not I could charm you. Would you like to be an animal for a day, Perhaps a horse or a hippopotamus? I've studied muggle animals; I know what they look like. Perhaps Dudley would like to be a baleen whale. I rather fancy those."

"Now see here, we don't abide by all that nonsense!" Vernon said.

"Really?" Luna said with wide eyes. "But you're caring for the most powerful, most important wizard born in the last century. You should be proud of our Harry. I know I am." She turned and kissed Harry soundly on the lips before turning back to the flabbergasted Dursley family. "I can't wait until I'm old enough to have his children. Oh to think of how powerful they will be. All the witches are lining up to have his offspring. There will be a veritable army of Potters ... All because of you. Thank you so much!"

She moved to hug them, but all three backed off quickly. "Quite all right," Petunia insisted. "Now, come along Harry, we must go."

Harry looked into Luna's laughing eyes. "See you soon, Harry," she said with a blatant wink. "If they give you any trouble, let me know and I'll have father come over and turn them all into pigs."

"See you soon, Luna," Harry said.

* * *

sp

sp

**Author's Note**: First, special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and also to JR and Miles for additional beta reading.

Thank you for reading.


	9. Punishment

**Author's Note**: Wow. I'm not sure what happened. I was trolling along getting a handful of reviews every chapter, and suddenly the reviews for Chap 8 exploded. There were some good comments/questions made, so if you are at all interested in my responses please see my ff dot net forum for this story where I've posted those responses.

Now, a warning: This chapter contains at least two very common HP cliches. Physical abuse, and magical martial arts. I know these are cliches, and I'm not going to apologize for them. There's a reason they are cliches-it's completely logical within the context of the story that Harry might have experienced severe physical abuse, and surely Asian wizards would have made a magical martial art. Come on, it had to have happened! Any way, there is some very stark violence in this chapter, so if you are easily bothered by such things, you may wish to skip to the end of the chapter.

Thank you for reading.

* * *

**Chapter Nine: Punishment**

Whatever Luna was trying to accomplish did not succeed.

The drive back to Surrey passed in absolute silence. Petunia and Vernon sat stiffly up front, while Dudley kept casting worried glances at Harry. All the time, though, Harry noticed how red his uncle's neck was.

They reached the house and the Dursleys got out of the car and walked to the house, leaving Harry to fetch his trunk. He had sent Hedwig ahead of him since he did not want to subject her to the drive.

The drive home left Harry feeling anxious. No one spoke, no one at all. He could see the folds of fat on the back of Vernon's neck flushing a bright, angry red, but still he did not speak. The anxious feeling grew, but still Harry did not speak.

The moment he started into the house, he felt a large meaty hand grab the lapels of his shirt. "Did you think that was funny?" Vernon screamed. Spittle covered Harry's glasses.

The hand pulled him through the doorway and inside the house with sufficient force to lift him from his feet. In fact, it wasn't a pull so much as a throw. Harry landed with a roll, suddenly thankful for all the training he had over the year. He came to his feet to find Vernon already rushing him.

"How dare you set that little trollop on us!" he screamed again. He swung a fist that Harry deftly side-stepped. "Stand still!"

Harry said nothing as his uncle swung again, and missed again. Unfortunately, he hadn't counted on Dudley. The large boy simply tackled him to the ground, and at that point there was no avoiding the Dursley's assault.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

On the third day of summer holidays, which fell on a Saturday, the doorbell of Number 4 Privet Drive rang.

Vernon opened the door to see a finely dressed man on the doorstep. He wore an expensively tailored pinstripe suit with a vest and tie. Along the curb of the street behind him they could see a 1973 Bentley in perfect condition. "Yes?" Vernon asked obsequiously.

"Mr. Dursley, my name is Roy Lockhart from Grunnings International. Do you have a few moments to speak to me?"

"Of course," Vernon said. "Please come in!" He stepped back since his girth blocked the entry way.

Lockhart nodded and stepped in, though he paused on the threshold for a long moment.

"Care for some tea?" Vernon asked.

"That would be quite acceptable," Lockhart said. "I wished to discuss your future at Grunnings. A lot of potential, you see."

"Of course," Vernon said as he led the other man into the living room.

When they were out of the entryway, the air shimmered and Luna Lovegood appeared. She shivered as the disillusionment charm faded, and calmly made her way up the stairs. There was only one closed door at the end of the hall on the First Floor, and when she reached it she noticed it had several strong locks on the outside of the room.

She undid them all and stepped into the room.

Harry Potter lay on a worn out old mattress wearing an old, bloody shirt. The room smelled of shit and piss, overlaid with the tinge of blood and sweat. As Luna approached, she could see that Harry's face was a bloody mess, beaten almost beyond recognition. He lay perfectly still, as if already dead, though she could see the rise and fall of his chest.

"Harry?" she whispered.

"Didn't like the joke at the station," he whispered.

She stood looking down at him, grey eyes wide and shining with an awful gleam. She did not cry or shout, she simply stood trembling in place. Finally, she said, "I did this. They did this to you because of me."

"Didn't know."

Through swollen eyes Harry could see Luna shaking violently. "Because of me," she whispered.

Suddenly she spun and reached into the sleeves of her loose summer dress. She did not pull out a wand—she removed two deadly silver knives. "I made a mistake," she said coldly. "Now I need to fix it."

"Luna…don't…"

She didn't hear him as she tore down the stairs. She heard adult voices in the sitting room and entered to find Adonis speaking with Vernon and Petunia while Dudley sat nearby drinking a soda. He was the first to see her.

"Whatcha' doin' here?" Dudley demanded loudly.

Without even pausing Luna threw her knife. It flitted through the air end over end before sinking with an audible thud into Dudley's right shoulder. The shock of the impact sent him and his chair tumbling backward even as he started squealing like a stuck pig.

"What is happening here?" Vernon screamed.

Luna turned abruptly and threw the second knife at him. It sank into the large man's stomach all the way to the hilt.

"Luna!" Adonis said. "What are you doing?"

"They beat Harry," she said, speaking somehow in a cold, controlled voice despite her displayed violence. "He's up there lying in his own shite and blood because of these snivelling cows. I'm going to kill them. I'm going to make them eat their own innards with sauce and torture them until their brains turn to mush." The fact she said all this calmly just made it all the more terrifying.

By this time Petunia was not even listening. She was crying over her husband, who was in turn gasping in pain over the knife handle protruding from his stomach.

Adonis turned to the tiny girl as she removed her wand. "Lovegood, attention!" he snapped.

Years of conditioning overrode her cold rage and made her snap to attention. "Attend to Apollo. Now!"

She actually began to shake with the need to cause pain. "They hurt him because of me!" she said. "I think it appropriate that you let me kill them! Please let me torture them ... At least the cousin? The wards are only tied to the aunt. Let me kill Dudley so they understand what it feels like!"

Petunia looked up in horror to see this newly turned twelve year old girl pleading to commit murder and torture. Adonis, however, stood firm. "That is not what Harry would want you to do. Could he forgive you if you did that, Luna? Do you think Harry could forgive you?"

The girl was positively vibrating with the need to kill, but finally turned herself away from the bloody tableau and ran upstairs to do what she could for Harry. In the meantime, Adonis looked down at Vernon.

"You're one of _them_!" Petunia hissed.

"Yes, I am," Adonis said lightly. He placed his wand to the edge of the knife. "This will hurt."

He yanked the knife out. Vernon screamed in agony, while Adonis quickly cast a field-medic charm that sealed the cut up from the inside out. In seconds there was no sign of injury.

"Now my son!" Petunia demanded. By this time Dudley had crawled against the corner, whimpering and crying. Luna's throw had not been as strong as with Vernon and the knife had already fallen out.

"Not quite yet," Adonis said. "We need to talk, first."

Incensed, Petunia stood up and pointed her finger in Adonis's face. "Get out you freak!"

Adonis moved so quickly no one understood what happened at first. One moment Petunia was raging at this intruder, and the next she was staring down at an arm bent completely the wrong way while the room reverberated with a loud CRACK. Then the pain stabbed through the shock and she fell to the couch, screaming herself.

Adonis waved his wand, and almost instantly the injury righted itself.

Petunia gasped and looked up at the man in terror.

"So, let's have a conversation, shall we?" Adonis asked. A chair slid against the carpet until he was able to sit facing them. "You hurt Harry. That was a very stupid thing to do. For you see, he is quite important to us. Ordinarily, I would try reasoning with adults, but the fact that you would harm a child proves to me that you are not adults."

"Please," Petunia gasped, no longer so sure, "please save my son."

"Of course, Dudley, please come here, boy."

Whimpering, Dudley stood and allowed Adonis to apply the healing charm. Dudley visibly sighed in relief.

Then with a brilliant smile, patented Gilderoy Lockhart smile, Adonis said, "_Poena do!"_

Dudley screamed and fell to the floor, convulsing violently.

"What are you doing?" Petunia screamed.

"I'm punishing you," Adonis said with an unconcerned smile, "Just as you punished your sister for being magical by abusing her son."

"Stop!" Vernon gasped, still recovering from his ordeal.

"No," Adonis said. "Luna wishes to kill you all, and to take her time doing so. She's quite mad, you know. She would gladly bathe in your blood if I gave her permission. But I think this is better. I think Dudley here will continue to suffer in order for you two to understand the depths of your mistakes."

"Please!" Petunia wept. "Please don't hurt him. Hurt me, don't hurt him!"

Dudley continued to scream and thrash about. "Very selfless," Adonis said. "Of course, I'm sure Lily Potter would have asked the same of you- if she hadn't already given her life for her son. And yet you have continued to heap abuse on Harry for all the years he has been here."

Adonis lifted his wand and Dudley went absolutely still. He did not whimper—he was unconscious.

"He'll be fine," Adonis said. "It is a pain spell that used to be employed by judiciaries in magical countries as a form of corporal punishment. He will recover completely." He paused for effect, a cold gleam in his eyes, "Which means I can put him under that spell for days on end without it causing irreparable harm ... Other than to his psyche, of course. Now, let's discuss Harry, shall we?"

"You can take him!" Petunia said.

"Sadly, I can't. There are elements of our society that would like to see the whole lot of you dead. While I would read your obituaries with a certain satisfaction, that would also end Harry's life as well. You are alive because he needs a safe place to sleep at night. So, here's what we're going to do."

Adonis stood, turned his back on the Dursleys and faced their fireplace. With a few flicks of his wand the fireplace expanded to five feet high. He then started casting a whole series of charms across it.

"There," he said at last. He continued to speak lightly, as if discussing the weather. "You're fireplace is now a single-destination, dedicated Floo. Every morning, Harry is going to step into the fireplace, and every evening before bed he's going to walk out and go to bed. You will not have to see him during the days, nor feed him. You will not interfere with his comings and goings or I am afraid I shall have to punish you. And just to remind you…"

"No…"

Adonis ignored them as he said, "_Poena do!"_ Dudley began screaming again even in his unconscious state, though this time only for a moment.

"Magic is a truly an awe-inspiring thing. Do you know that the word 'awe' originally meant to be in fear of a thing? You should fear magic, Petunia, because in the hands of the righteously angry, it can exact a terrible punishment for your sins."

Just then Luna appeared with Harry. Even Adonis, a seasoned Unspeakable, sucked in his breath when he saw the blood-soaked, beaten boy. Luna walked with one of his arms over her shoulder, not even aware of the mess he was making of her dress.

Adonis closed his eyes momentarily before turning to the Dursleys. "You have no idea how very much I want to let Luna have her way with you right now. I am not a nice man. I can and have killed people, including on one occasion a child not much older than your son." He took a deep steadying breath, "But the wanton beating of an innocent for no reason? What did you gain from hurting him? You are truly despicable people. Luna, get him through the Floo. It's ready."

She nodded before turning back to the Dursleys. "If you every harm Harry again," she said calmly, "I will kill you and use your bodies for potion ingredients."

She then took Harry into the unlit fireplace. It flared with a huge flame of green, and instantly the two were gone.

Adonis nodded in satisfaction. "Now, to summarize, you will never beat Harry again. If you do, I will torture your son until he loses his mind. You will not interfere with Harry's comings and goings . If you do, I will torture your son until he loses his mind. You will do exactly as I say regardless of the circumstances or I _will_ torture your son until he loses his mind. And you will tell absolutely no one, wizard or Muggle, of this conversation, or I will force you, Vernon, to murder your own wife and child before I remove your skin inch by inch and then remove your head. Do you all understand?"

The Dursleys, silenced by their terror, could only nod.

Adonis nodded back and gave them his best Gilderoy Lockhart smile. "Excellent. I'm so glad we had this chance to talk. Oh, yes," he flicked his wand, making the Dursleys jump, "_Accio_ Harry's things!"

Harry's trunk and magical belongings exploded from the cupboard under the stairs and floated in front of the wizard. "Have a pleasant day," he said as he walked through the Floo. In the street outside, the Bentley faded away to thin air as did the temporary ward that hid all the magic from the Ministry of Magic's monitors.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Ginny sat up in the extra bed in Luna's bedroom when she heard the rush of the Floo from downstairs. She jumped to her feet, but paused a moment. Her heart was thudding in her chest with excitement at seeing Harry. It had only been a few days, and yet she was almost hyperventilating at the thought of seeing him again.

She forced herself to take a deep breath, until she heard Luna cry out, "Ginny, help me!"

This wasn't a happy call. Frowning in concern, Ginny rushed out of Luna's overly organized, Spartan room and rushed down the spiral stairs to the ground floor of the Rookery. She saw Harry folding to the floor despite Luna's best attempt to keep him upright and screamed, "Harry!"

She rushed to his side, wanting to touch him but too afraid of hurting him more. She looked up at the stony-faced Luna and saw the blood on her dress. "What happened?"

"It's my fault," Luna said with terrifying calm. "I wanted to make the Dursleys uncomfortable, so I pretended to be Harry's girlfriend at the train station. They…they did this to him because of it. It's my fault."

Before Ginny could move Luna pulled a short dagger from her robes and thrust the knife directly between the bones of her forearm.

"Luna!" Ginny gasped, horrified. "Stop! Now!"

Luna let the blade fall to the floor as blood pumped from the wound. The girl bent over, her face warped by pain and rage. "I hurt him, Ginny. It's all my fault. I hurt him!"

Suddenly Mr. Lovegood was there. Without a word he applied a healing spell to her arm, and then thrust a vial in her hands. "Drink," he ordered.

Without a blink, Luna downed the vial. Almost instantly her eyes rolled up into her head and she slumped against her father.

Xenophilius Lovegood, known within the Department of Mysteries as the Unspeakable Zeus, looked from his daughter to the horribly beaten form of Harry Potter with hard, glittering blue eyes set in a broad, bearded face. "I trust Adonis is taking steps to ensure this does not happen again," the old wizard said.

He pushed himself to his feet and levitated his daughter to a sofa that faced the fireplace. He then walked back to Harry and began performing diagnostic charms. "Have you begun your first aid training yet?" he asked in a non-nonsense voice.

"No sir," Ginny said. While Adonis was a commanding presence, Xenophilius' countenance screamed for absolute and instantaneous compliance. She imagined he was what Dumbledore could have been like after twenty years in the Royal Marines.

"Then watch. This is a general diagnostics spell, known as the _Esti_ spell. That is its incantation as well. Repeat it."

Ginny repeated the incantation. "Good," Lovegood said. "Notice that the wand movement is not a flick or a jab, but a gentle hemispheric pass over the body."

Ginny duplicated the movement and repeated the incantation at the same time as Xenophilius, and blinked in surprise as Harry's body glowed: Flashes of red illuminated broken bones, while yellow illuminated bruised or torn soft tissue. There was so much.

She pulled her wand back, sniffing. "Those bastards," she breathed. She looked back at Luna. "Will she be okay?"

"She has not had an episode like that since she attempted to kill your brother Percy before Hogwarts. She will sleep the potion off, but will be troubled when she wakes. If you are concerned for her, be with her when that happens. She will sleep for two hours."

"Yes, sir,"

Lovegood nodded. "Good girl."

Just then the fireplace flamed and Adonis stepped through with a hard countenance. He noticed Luna passed out on the couch. "This will not happen again," he said. It was not a vow so much as a statement of fact.

"Those Muggles damaged a state treasure," Lovegood agreed. "I should hope not." He leaned back. "There is sufficient damage to require Skele-Gro. I am going to have to simply vanish two of his ribs. The soft tissue damage will be easier—we have those potions at hand. There will be no training today. When he returns to the Dursley's tonight, you will go with him, Adonis. Ensure his sleeping quarters are clean and his bed comfortable."

"I'll just get a new one," Adonis said with a shrug.

They administered the potions to the semi-lucid Harry. Once he'd received his medications, Adonis levitated Harry while the elder Lovegood levitated the sleeping form of Luna, and Ginny simply followed along. While she did not actually have Wizard's measles, the potion used to mimic the symptoms left her feeling rather wrung out.

She was surprised when Adonis put Harry in the middle of Luna's austere bed. She was even more surprised when he expanded the bed on either side. Lovegood gently lowered his daughter to Harry's side.

"What are…?" Ginny asked. She stopped when Lovegood pierced her with his blue eyes.

"If she could love as we do, she would love you and Harry more than her own life," he said. "She made a horrible decision, and is now punishing herself more than anyone else could. If I had not intervened, it is entirely possible she would have cut her own wrists or even her own throat. Are you familiar with house elves?"

"I have seen them."

"What happens when a house elf hurts its master?"

"It dies. Usually kills itself."

"Luna hurt her master, Ginny. And only her master can make it better. And you are her mistress as well. Lie down with them. Comfort them."

"But sir, we're so young…"

"I do not expect an orgy, Miss Weasley. I expect you and Harry to save my daughter from herself."

Ginny blinked and then blushed. "You're right, I'm sorry," she said quickly. "I care for Luna too."

His glower softened. "I know you do. And I know the relationship Adonis and I are pushing you and Harry into is uncomfortable for all of you, for we are pushing you. Whatever your ages, I would insist on you sleeping together like this. You are a team. You have the potential to be the greatest Unspeakable team in our history. We've never been able to team up a sport with someone of your own power before here in the British Isles, and I will not stop pushing until you meet that potential, morals be damned."

She felt so very small under his hard gaze. "I'm not sure I can do what you seem to be suggesting. And I'm not sure Harry can either."

"I am not insisting on it tonight," Lovegood said. "You are children yet. There is time for you to sort yourselves out later. For now, lie with them. When she wakes, just hold her and let her know that she is not alone. Please."

"Of course,"

"Very good ... We will leave you alone for now."

With a final nod to Adonis, the two men left and gently closed the door behind them. Ginny did not get into bed down immediately; instead she resumed her examination of Luna's room.

Luna had nothing on her walls save a wizarding portrait of her mother. Celene Lovegood was a beautiful woman, with long silvery hair and gentle blue eyes. Her eyes were not as large or protruding as Luna's, which softened her expression and gave her the appearance of wisdom and kindness that was absent in Luna's face.

The only other furniture was a desk, a weapons cabinet stocked with an alarming variety of knives, and along the far wall a huge line of full bookshelves.

"Ginny?"

She turned and realized Harry was awake and staring at her through one swollen eye. "Oh Harry," she said as she sat on the bed beside him. "I'm so sorry." She took his hand and held it.

"'Kay," he said with a weak smile. "Here now. Better with you."

Ginny smiled even if her eyes were watery. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Lie down with us?" he asked.

Ginny nodded and let go of his hand long enough to crawl around until she was curled up on the other side of Luna. His hand rested on her hip—she laced her fingers through his and placed it back down. Luna was facing Harry on her side.

"I'm gonna get better," he whispered over Luna's head. "But Luna needs us."

"I know," Ginny said.

"You're my family now," he said, "You and Luna."

She wanted so very badly to kiss him in that moment. "And family takes care of its own," she said.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Luna woke up with a gasp. She began struggling immediately, giving out animalistic squeals as arms held her. One arm came down across her chest, while another crossed her stomach. She fought almost with blind fear, whimpering, until she heard familiar voices whispering to her that it was okay. That she was safe ... That they loved her.

She opened her eyes and saw Harry's face an inch from hers. Already much of the swelling from earlier was gone, allowing him to look back at her normally. She felt a body pressed against her back and realized it was Ginny. Around her she saw her room; they were on her bed.

She stopped struggling and lay perfectly still, sandwiched between their bodies. She was twelve years old, and she knew Ginny and Harry would both have birthdays the following month. Harry would be thirteen, Ginny would also be twelve.

"I'm sorry," Luna said.

"You didn't hurt me."

"I created the situation that allowed you to be hurt."

"And I forgive you," Harry said simply.

"I need to be punished."

"You are being punished. I'm sure my breath smells horrible."

"You smell beautiful," Luna said back. She closed her eyes and pushed back against Ginny, luxuriating in the feel of her. "Hug me," she said. "Please. Squeeze me."

She knew Harry and Ginny were looking at each other, but she didn't care. She needed the touch; the feel of them. They must have agreed. Harry shuffled painfully over until he was pressing against her, while Ginny pushed against her back. The two of them put their arms around her and each other and squeezed her in a hug.

Luna closed her eyes and snaked her arm around Harry. "Thank you," she whispered.

"We're family, we three," Harry said.

"And family takes care of its own," Ginny said. "You take care of us, Luna. And we'll always take care of you."

For her part, Ginny exulted in the feel of Harry's arm around her, and the body pressed against hers. She finally understood what Xenophilius Lovegood had been trying to tell her. This wasn't about anything inappropriate. This was about love and touch. And Luna's needs.

They remained there for the rest of the day, simply hugging, until evening fell and Harry had to return to the Dursleys with Adonis.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

There was no more mention of the Dursleys after that. Harry in fact never saw his relatives, despite sleeping in the same house. They stayed in their rooms until after he was gone and made sure to retire before he returned. The fact he left before dawn and didn't return until late made everyone's life easier. The fact that when Adonis accompanied him back that first night he brought a new bed made sleeping even easier for Harry..

The next day when he arrived back in the Rookery, he found Luna and Ginny eating pastries at the table with Mr. Lovegood. There was no sign of the previous day's traumatic events, and Harry knew better than to bring it up.

Lovegood motioned for him to sit and silently handed him a tray of croissants with a glass of pumpkin juice. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yes, sir," Harry said. If he were at Hogwarts, Pomfrey would have insisted he stay in bed for another day.

Lovegood merely nodded. "Good. Drink your juice—it contains nourishment potions, which you'll need. Now, you have already received a strong basis in meditation and theory. This summer we are going to work on the elementals of wandless casting, silent casting, and physical preparedness. Have either of you ever heard of _Shénaí zhí lù auán_?"

Harry and Ginny both shook their heads.

"It translates roughly to 'Way of the magical fist'. It was developed by the Tibetan wizard-priests to defend Shangri-La against Chinese and Mongol hostility over the centuries. It is the only purely magical form of martial art in the world. Practitioners must make an unbreakable vow not to teach it to anyone not approved by the _Gyatso Lama_ of Shangri-La. Fortunately for me, the _Gyatso Lama_ is an old golfing friend of mine. We have contacted him, and he has given his blessings for me to teach the three of you. For Luna, this will be relatively easy since she has studied the Muggle martial arts that formed the basis of _Shénaí zhí lù auán._ For the two of you, it will be an interesting experience. Adonis will serve as the binder for the oaths if you wish to learn."

Harry was in the moment he heard the term "magical martial art". Ginny went along simply because Harry did. Luna agreed because she just wanted to see what an unbreakable vow entailed.

Once the vows were given, their education in the magical martial arts began in earnest.

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and also to JR and Miles for additional beta reading. They had some really good suggestions that helped this chapter.


	10. Family

Chapter 9 review responses are posted in my ff dot net forums. Thank you for reading.

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**Chapter Ten: Family**

_Author's Warning: Old People Have Sex Too_

Molly Weasley was worried.

It wasn't exactly an uncommon occurrence. Molly worried about a lot of things. She worried about her husband's career and if they would ever get enough money to be comfortable when he had to stop working. She worried about her son Charlie and his obsession with dragons. She worried incessantly over whether Bill would ever settle down. (She could not count the number of witches her eldest son had gone through, though she wondered how anyone could find his long hair and earring attractive.)

She worried about Percy not having many friends, and Ron not passing his classes.

But what really worried her was her precious baby girl—her Ginny.

Ginny was different lately, and Molly couldn't put her finger on exactly why.

Ginny was always the baby of the family, but Molly knew better than to believe as Arthur did that their baby girl could do no wrong. Though the kids would deny it until they were all red in the face, Molly knew who _really_ put those spiders in Ron's bed. She watched how Ginny's brothers treated her and knew that much respect did not appear out of a vacuum. They treated her like an honored opponent, which meant she had given as good as she got.

But in the week before school when she and the rest of the family returned from Egypt, she found Ginny subtly changed.

Ginny still laughed and joked with her brothers to be sure. But Molly noticed that her only daughter would often just sit with her back to the nearest wall and watch. Plus there were the physical changes. Her girl was undoubtedly becoming a woman, which Molly knew would happen eventually. Her own body started changing when she was ten, but then again she was a bit heavier than Ginny. When they returned Ginny pulled her aside and explained that her menses had begun.

Molly beamed at the girl and taught her all the necessary charms witches had to know to keep themselves clean and to prevent any accidents. Ginny's cheeks burned the entire time, but otherwise she simply accepted the lessons and practiced both the cleaning and absorbency charms until she had them mastered, and then learned the contraceptive charm as well without a word.

Since her girl was such a good student, Molly did not question how Ginny learned the charms so quickly.

_Perhaps that was it,_ she reasoned as she cooked breakfast the morning before their trip to Diagon Alley. _Maybe the fact that Ginny was a woman now made her more confident. Because she was confident_—Molly could see it in the way she walked and the way she treated brothers. She was no longer as mean to Ron, but instead was actually helping him with his homework, even though he was a year more advanced.

Perhaps that was it.

The Floo flared brilliant green and Harry Potter appeared. Dumbledore had arranged for Harry to join them on their school shopping trip the day before they were to travel to Hogwarts. He stumbled a little, but seemed to handle Floo travel much better than before.

Like Ginny, Harry had changed, though in him the changers were more apparent. For one, the boy had finally put on the some weight and height. He was finally approaching an average height for his age. His shoulders were beginning to broaden a little with the onset of puberty, though his voice still warbled with the unpredictability that came from being a boy on the verge of being a man. Still, he carried himself with a straight back and when he stepped forward to greet Ron, he did so with a rolling, confident step.

Ron gave him a jovial greeting, as did the twins who were his Quidditch teammates. Harry accepted the handshakes with a friendly smile. Even Arthur greeted the boy like family, which Molly approved of. Harry had become family, in many ways. She herself bustled out of the kitchen to give him one of her patented Prewitt hugs before telling him breakfast would be done shortly.

She was just inside the kitchen when she heard Ginny say, "Hey, Harry."

"Hey, Ginny."

Powerful, well-honed maternal instincts screamed at Molly. She turned to the two and saw them sharing nothing more than a smile, and in that instant Molly knew exactly what had happened.

Ginny and Harry were in love.

The way their eyes met without flinching; the way Harry's cheeks pinked but his smile widened; the way Ginny twirled a strand of hair while the two talked about Quidditch for the coming year with Ron—it all screamed of mutual affection. Poor Ron missed it all as he started showing the two diagrams of plays he wanted them to try. It was as if the two of them were trying to include Ron in a relationship that he had no place in.

She turned back to cooking, concerned and confused. She thought that Muggleborn friend of his and Ron's would be the one to fetch Harry's attention. From Ron's letters, they were as thick as thieves during first year, though Ron's second-year letters slowed down quite a bit and he didn't talk about his friends as much. In fact, after the adventure of their first year, the second year was somewhat boring—exactly what school was supposed to be.

She mulled over it as she finished cooking and gathered her extended family to the table for breakfast. She noted how Harry sat between Ron and Ginny. She also noticed how the twins sat on either side of them, as if to buffer them somehow. She knew Fred and George well enough to see recognition in their faces. They too saw what was happening, and seemed to approve of it.

The meal went off quite well. She tucked her concern into a corner of her mind for the moment to enjoy being with her family. There was absolutely nothing more important to her than family, and when her family was happy like now, she was happy.

After a filling meal, she was pleasantly surprised when the twins, in a move wildly out of character, offered to help her clean up while everyone else prepared for their annual trip to Diagon Alley.

Once the three of them were in the relative safety of the kitchen, the twins said, "So mum, you noticed?"

She didn't know if it was Fred or George who asked, and frankly she knew it didn't matter. "Noticed, dear?"

"Mum, we're not Ron," the other twin said.

"No, dears, you're not. And I do wish you'd apply those brilliant minds of yours to school. You could have higher marks than anyone in your years."

"Other things to do," George said.

"Other thoughts to think," Fred added. "So, about our little lovebirds?"

"When did it happen?"

"The train ride to Hogwarts last year," George said. "Someone put a repelling charm on Harry. Hermione and Ron kicked him out and he found Ginny with Luna. Luna left, but the ward didn't affect Ginny. Don't know what they said, but they were never far apart after that."

"Then there was that git Lockhart," Fred added. "Man had the two of them in detention every night except when they were doing Quidditch. Weekends and even over the holiday break. Every single day. Thing is, they didn't complain about it, right? It was like they were just going through the motions."

"They were in there together," George said with a wink. "One time we even saw Lockhart leave the room with the two of them together, alone."

Molly's cheeks reddened. "You don't think…."

"If it were anyone but Harry," Fred said.

"Good old Harry," George added, "Always around one witch or another. Poor Ron can't see it, but Granger did."

"You mean Hermione?"

The twins grinned. "Luna had words with her ... Made her cry."

"What on earth for?"

"Because Harry is Ginny's now," George said, suddenly no longer smiling. "And Luna has appointed herself their protector. That's one scary girl, Mum. We don't even try to prank her."

"Well, Luna's had such a hard time since her Mum died, poor dear."

"Well, evidently Harry and Ginny are her new therapy," Fred said. "Now, you got enough of the drama? Are we okay to go?"

"How did you…"

"Rather you hear it from us than Percy," Fred said.

"And to let you know we're watching out for them," George said.

Molly shook her head. "I don't know whether to box your ears or hug you until your heads pop."

"That's our cue to leave!" the twins said as they scampered out of the kitchen.

The family Flooed to the Leaky Cauldron an hour later to do their shopping. Arthur made a point of staying with Harry, as did Ron and Ginny. Molly knew why, of course. With the escape of that horrid Sirius Black, Harry was in danger. But in the middle of Diagon Ally she felt the boy was safe enough.

She felt a little pride when Harry and his party returned from Gringotts with money, and the boy went directly to Madame Malkin's for clothes. He always wore such ratty things, and they were getting to the point where the pants were too wide at the waist but short on the legs.

They made a day of it and actually rented rooms at the inn since they would be going to Hogwarts the next day. The party was complete when Ron and Harry's Muggleborn friend joined them.

If she needed any proof of the twins' story, she had it when Hermione and Harry greeted each other. She could see a hint of sadness in both their faces, even while they forced smiles to each other. Ginny actually seemed to hover closer to Harry, as if to emphasize the bond she seemed to share with the boy.

Ron just talked about Quidditch, though Molly noticed how Hermione gravitated toward him. She chuckled throughout dinner as Hermione constantly corrected her wayward son on everything from manners to language. It was the behavior of someone making her own claim and training a future romantic interest, and the thought intrigued Molly. She knew that Hermione was very, very smart, and her Ron would need someone to do the thinking for him.

It was a genuinely pleasant evening, without any arguments or fights. They retired to their rooms, with Hermione sharing a room with Ginny despite any tensions that might exist. Molly made her way to her own room only to find her husband grinning at her with a frisky smile. "Oh Arthur," she said. "I know that look."

"After seven children, I would hope so," he said with a happy laugh.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Ginny shook her head. "Thank Merlin for silencing charms."

"What?" Hermione asked as she placed out her evening clothes.

"My parents, I swear half of us were conceived in this inn."

Hermione blushed. "There are some things I don't need to know about your parents, Ginny."

"Sorry."

Ginny was already in her nightgown and was reading a Muggle book Harry had suggested. She watched as Hermione changed into her night gown, noticing the fact that her friend was much, much more developed than she was. Hermione sensed the attention. "What?"

"Just wishing I had some of those," Ginny said with a nod to Hermione's chest. "What I have isn't very big."

"Ginny, you just turned twelve. I'm going to be fourteen in less than a month. Don't try comparing. You're a beautiful girl. Harry's very lucky."

Her voice hitched at the last, and she made a show of hiding it by slipping on her night gown.

Ginny sat frozen, surprised at the glimpse of loss she had seen on the other girl, "Hermione?"

"Yes?" the other girl said with false cheer.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For everything; For Luna ... For Harry ... For…I don't know. I know it's not really fair."

"But?"

"Life's not fair. Can you keep a secret?"

"I have before."

"Sit?"

Hermione stalked across the room they shared and sat down on the bed. Ginny swallowed. "Before they left, Luna wanted to play a trick on Harry's relatives. Just to put them off their guard. She pretended to be Harry's girlfriend. The trick backfired." She shuddered at the memory of Harry's wounds. "They hurt him so bad, Hermione, you can't imagine. They broke his cheekbones. His ribs ... They broke his arm. They beat him almost to death and then left him on his bed locked up for three days until Luna and…and our trainer went to get him."

Hermione stared back at Ginny with tears in her eyes. "Surely not…"

"Luna went insane. She stabbed Harry's cousin and his uncle and was about to kill them all, but our trainer made her take Harry to safety. Then he set about putting them to rights. I was there when Luna came through. Hermione…remember when she stabbed her hand to scare you? She did the same then, only she stabbed herself in the arm. She was about to do it again but her dad stopped her. She was going to kill herself because her trick got Harry hurt. She needs us so much that I think she'd die—really die—without us."

Hermione's mind ran through everything quickly—as befitting the brightest witch of her age. "You weren't sick, were you? You and Harry trained all summer with Luna."

Ginny nodded. "We did."

"Why?"

"Hermione, I am very powerful. I didn't realize it until last year, but I'm more powerful than ninety-nine percent of all the witches in the world, and am the most powerful witch born in England in the last century. And Harry dwarfs me."

Hermione blinked. "The Miltventor Scale…."

"Is sealed for children who score higher than 99 percent," Ginny cut in. "I'm telling you this, Hermione, because I think someday you're going to be able to help us. If…if we have to actually fight, we're going to need someone who can help us find answers. Luna can do it, but she doesn't understand emotions: Hers or anyone else's. But you really are the smartest person I know, and I think you could help us understand not just facts, but how to deal with them."

"Ginny, is Luna…."

"I studied some Muggle texts last year trying to figure her out myself. Luna is a clinical sociopath. Her mind was damaged by the same spell that killed her mother. She's had some breakthroughs, but only with Harry and me."

"And when you get older, Ginny? When you're seventeen or eighteen and you're not looking at Harry like just a friend?"

"I'm there already," Ginny muttered with reddened cheeks. "And it's going to be strange with Luna there too, but Harry and I have talked about it and for us, Luna is a part of us. We're like a family now. Not brothers and sisters really, but a family. I…we love each other, Hermione. I'd do anything for either of them, and I know they'd do the same. Luna would regardless, but Harry would as well."

"And why are you telling me this?"

"Because I really like you," Ginny gushed. "I think you're funny and smart and beautiful and I really want to be your friend. I don't want to hurt you, and I don't want you to be mad at us. But Harry, Luna and I are going to spend a lot of time this year training and learning. We're not dating or anything—yet—but we are partners."

Hermione pursed her lips and looked out the dirty window of their room. She only turned back when she felt a hand on hers. Ginny didn't speak; she just stared at Hermione with pleading, warm brown eyes.

"It's hard to stay mad at you and Harry," Hermione said. "But it's so easy to be jealous. Just, please take care of him. And don't be mad if I give him the occasional hug. Or more important—don't let Luna kill me if I give him a hug."

"Only if I get to hug you too!" Ginny said with a brilliant smile. She leaned forward and wrapped the older girl in a tight hug. "Thank you, Hermione. You'll never know just how important you are to us."

"Well, I won't mind if you try to let me know once in a while."

"Every day if we have to ... Now, let's talk shop. Do you know all the right witches charms? And do you know of any I might have missed? I just started mine this summer."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Molly climbed out of bed and chuckled. Arthur lay on his back wearing a pleasant smile and nothing else. She turned back to the mirror and studied herself.

Gone was the sprightly girl of Hogwarts. She knew she'd put on quite a bit of weight, but Arthur didn't seem to mind. If anything, the more she jiggled, the more amorous he became. Still, there was no mistaking the number of infant mouths that had suckled at her now sagging breasts, or the number of babes birthed from between her wide hips. The roll of fat on her stomach was lined with stretch marks that the potion creams became ineffective on after her third child.

She suddenly had a vision of her Ginny, a few years from now, standing in front of a mirror studying her body, while Harry lay nude and happy in the bed behind her. It was a flash so clear she might have mistaken it for a memory, if not for the fact that a thin, pale, blonde woman lay next to him, as nude as he was.

Her daydream was interrupted by two gentle hands snaking around her from behind and resting under, and in fact propping up, her large, well-used breasts. "Knut for your thoughts?" Arthur said into her neck.

"I look used," she said.

"You look beautiful," he assured her.

"You're lying."

"You look beautiful to me," he said.

"That I believe."

"So, what's on your mind? I know that expression."

"Harry and Ginny are developing feelings for each other."

Arthur sighed. "I know. When I picked Ginny up from the Rookery Xeno Lovegood told me about some of the conversations Ginny and Luna had. She is very fond of Harry, and evidently they became close last year. I Flooed Minerva from work and she confirmed that Harry and Ginny did seem to spend a lot of time together, but that so far Harry had acted like a complete gentleman."

"I wouldn't expect any less," Molly said. "It's amazing how such a sweet boy could have come from such a horrid home."

Arthur nodded. "Well?"

"Well what?"

Arthur grinned and guided her to her feet, then gently pushed her over. "You old letch," Molly said over her shoulder. However, she grinned too. They did so love their time at the Leaky Cauldron. She suspected at least half their children were conceived there.

Thank Merlin for silencing charms.

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and also to JR and Miles for additional beta reading. As always the three of them made this a better chapter.


	11. Dementors

Chapter Ten Review Responses (such as they are due to the ff dot net flub last weekend) are available on my forums. Thank you.

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**Chapter Eleven: Dementors**

Harry sat with Luna on one side and Ginny on the other of the cabin on the way back to Hogwarts. They were, all three of them, reading a large hard-back edition of The Lord of the Rings. Occasionally Luna would comment on how unlikely it was that elves would fight alongside humans, or the fact that oliphaunts actually did exist until the wizards of Rome wiped them out when Carthage was razed at the end of the Third Punic War.

Across from them, Hermione watched the three; Ron read about Quidditch while nibbling a chocolate cauldron Harry gave him; and a man slept in the corner by the window. According to the name on the trunk over his head, his name was R. Lupin.

Hermione reflected on how odd it was that Harry had selected a cabin already occupied by a man she presumed was a professor, but then again she knew that much about Harry, Ginny and Luna was not as it seemed. After the conversations she had with all three, she was frankly just happy to be included in their group, no matter in what capacity.

She was watching them now as all three focused on the book. She looked from one set of eyes to the other, and though she couldn't be sure, it seemed as if all three of them were reading at exactly the same speed. This was strange because she always thought that Harry was a very slow reader, whereas Ginny was a very fast reader.

She had no idea if Luna even bothered to read at all. She just seemed to absorb things.

"Did you have a good summer, Luna?" Hermione finally braved.

"Tolerable," Luna said absently without looking up from the book. "Did you enjoy your trip to Spain?"

"Yes, it was wonderful." Hermione had not mentioned where her family had holidayed, but assumed Harry or Ginny might have.

Next to Hermione, Ron snorted. "Look 'ere. Some bloke in Leeds is trying to say the Irish are going to make the Quidditch cup next year."

"They will," Luna said, again without looking up from the book. "They will play Bulgaria. There's a very good chance they will win the game."

Ron stared at her: "Like you know anything about Quidditch. Been reading Trelawney's tea leaves again?"

Luna looked up and blinked at him with her large, gray-blue eyes. "It's an arithmantical projection."

Hermione felt her jaw drop. "Did you read that, Luna?"

"Bookies don't post their arithmantical projections, Hermione," Luna said as if to a child. "You do your own or take a guess."

"But you have to be a tenth year master arithmancer to be able to do a projection like what you're talking about."

"Really? How interesting," Luna said dismissively before looking back down at the book. "Father staked most of our family vault's contents on the Irish making and winning the Quidditch cup next summer. The odds for a bet this early promise to give us a return of almost seven hundred percent. We will use the money to go on a Snorkack expedition next summer."

"A Snorkack expedition?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, for the Crumple-Horned Snorkack."

"What is that?"

"A magical animal."

"What does it look like?"

Luna kept reading for a long, pregnant moment before saying, "I'm sure I'll find out if we ever find one."

Hermione shook her head. Ron snorted his dismissal and returned to his magazine. Lupin snored for a moment before adjusting his position.

"He must have had a bad night," Ron noted.

Ginny looked up from the book to study the man. "Yeah, must have."

Outside, hard rain splashed against the window. It was so dark it hardly seemed possible that they were in the middle of the day. It was also unusually cold for such an early September day. Hermione wondered if winter was going to arrive early that year. She loved nothing more than to snuggle into a chair by a fireplace with a good book during cold, winter weather.

The brief image was shattered though by the roar of a troll.

Hermione jumped. "What is it?" Ron asked.

"Did you hear that?" she asked.

"Hear what?" Ginny asked.

Luna, though, was staring back at Hermione with wide eyes. "What did you hear?" she whispered.

Something in her tone caused Harry to look up from his book as well.

"I heard a troll," Hermione said. "Like the one from first year."

"I heard something else," Luna said. Hermione noticed that the younger girl was making a fist with her right hand.

The train abruptly lurched, throwing everyone almost out of there seat. "What is going on?" Ron asked. "We can't be at Hogsmeade yet!"

The window outside began to frost over. The temperature abruptly dropped. The man by the window woke with a snort. "What's happening?"

"The train stopped and it's getting cold," Harry said.

Professor Lupin looked around at the frightened children and nodded. "Stay here," he said. "I'm going to see what is happening." He left the compartment.

"What do you think is happening?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know for sure," Ginny said nervously. "But it's not icing or snowing outside. So why is there ice on our window?"

If it were possible, the air got even colder. Hermione jumped again as she heard the troll from first year roaring once more. Only this time she heard her own screams as well. Abruptly she had a flash of Ron, on the chessboard from their jaunt to save the philosopher's stone. She saw the queen's scepter crashing down, and how very still he was afterward. She began to shake.

She heard a low, keening groan. Luna was backing away from the door, her face pale and tears streaming down her face. It was the most emotion Hermione had ever seen on the young girl's face. Harry and Ginny were also both pale as they stood to either side of Luna. They were facing the cabin door.

Hermione's breath caught in her throat and her heart skipped a beat. Long, skeletal fingers were slowly pulling the door of their cabin back. She squealed and scooted back against Ron, who himself scooted back while holding her. The door continued to slide back until they saw clearly the horror on the other side.

It was a living, breathing shadow; a nightmare clad in rotting rags that floated off the floor. It had no face, only a writhing, living darkness. It looked around the cabin.

Luna's eyes rolled up into her head and she started going into violent convulsions. Harry cried out in obvious pain and fell right down beside her, while Ginny shakily pulled her wand. "_Confringo!"_

A red blast of magical energy ripped out from Ginny's wand, but passed through the demon without apparent affect. It did, however, blow out the wall of the carriage behind it, revealing the cold, rainy weather beyond. Despite her terror, Hermione wondered where Ginny had learned such a powerful spell.

Suddenly a flash of bright light struck the creature, which squealed in rage before fleeing before the light. Hermione sighed with relief as Professor Lupin arrived. His eyes immediately went to the floor.

She looked herself and felt a tinge of new fear when she saw Luna and Harry both passed out. Her little fear was nothing compared to Ginny's panic. "No, no no no no no no no! Harry! Luna! Please, Oh Merlin, please wake up!"

Hermione started to stand when she realized Ron's arms were still firmly around her stomach. "Er, sorry," he muttered.

She turned and smiled shyly at him. "My protector," she said softly before looking back to Remus. He was kneeling on the floor looking at the two of unconscious students.

"It's all right," he said gently to Ginny.

Ginny was shaking, though, as she desperately hugged the two. "They won't wake up!"

"Miss Weasley," Lupin said calmly, "they will wake up. Dementors affect those with difficult pasts worse than others. I promise though they will be okay."

As if to prove his words, Harry's eyes flittered open. "Ginny?" he asked. He sat up and looked in surprise at the chocolate shoved in his face.

"Eat it," Lupin advised. "It will help, I promise."

"Yes, sir," Harry said. He absently popped the chocolate in his mouth. He then bent over and lifted Luna off the floor as if she were a child. She was not, though, and Hermione was surprised at how casually Harry seemed to lift her.

Without prompting, Ginny seemed to read his mind and sat down. Harry sat against a corner and together they laid the blonde girl out until her head rested on Ginny's lap, and her feet were on Harry's.

"What happened, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"I heard screaming," Harry said. "A voice talking, and screaming. Someone screaming my name. I…I think it was my mother."

"Oh," Hermione whispered. She glanced up and saw an expression of abject agony on Lupin's face, though it only lasted a moment.

"Why isn't Luna waking up?" Ginny demanded.

"She will soon," Lupin promised. "I don't know why those foul creatures were allowed on the train, but rest assured it will not happen again. Stay here and keep the door closed. When she wakes up, give her some of this chocolate. I need to go check on the other students."

He turned and left again, closing the compartment door behind him.

Hermione shivered a little—the cold from the hole in the outside wall across from their compartment blasted in while Lupin stepped out. It still amazed Hermione that Ginny knew such a dangerous spell. Ron blinked when he saw the hole, then looked back to his sister, who was carefully cradling Luna's head. His eyes travelled to Harry, who was oddly enough rubbing the girl's feet.

"Mate," he finally said, "you're rubbing her feet."

"Pressure points," Harry explained. "It helps."

"He's right," Hermione said, though she couldn't for the life of her figure out how Harry of all people would know that.

Suddenly Luna's eyes popped open and she let out a shockingly loud scream even as she began to struggle. Ginny leaned over and simply hugged the girl, while Harry kept a firm grip on her legs to keep her from kicking. Almost immediately the convulsions stopped. Luna went perfectly still with her face buried in Ginny's developing chest.

She leaned back. "That is a lovely scent," she said as if they were having a normal conversation. "Is that lily?"

Wordlessly Ginny nodded.

Luna sat up with some help from the other two and wiggled her toes. "Hmmm," she said, "my feet feel quite refreshed. Thank you, Harry."

"Are you all right?" Hermione asked.

"Of course," Luna said. She blinked, once. "Sadly Dementors have a rather negative impact on me. I apologize for being a bother."

"I passed out too," Harry said with a shrug. He handed her the chocolate. Luna reached up to take it, but her hands were still trembling too badly, so she let them fall back to her lap.

"Thank you, perhaps later."

"Luna, be a Ravenclaw, not a Gryffindor. Open up."

Ron stared in disbelief as Luna opened her mouth and let Harry pop the piece of chocolate in. "Hmmm," she whispered, "Quite delicious."

"You lot are barmy," Ron finally said.

"You're just mad because I had my face in your sister's chest," Luna pointed out.

He turned bright red, "Am not."

"You wish you had a chest like hers too, don't you?" Luna asked.

"Gods, he'd never come out of his room," Ginny snorted. "He'd be in there playing with his own boobies all day."

Harry snorted while Ron burned an even brighter red.

"Enough," Hermione said. "Please." She put a hand on Ron's shoulder. "He was very brave just now."

Ron noticeably straightened.

"We're just having you on, Ron," Harry said. "Thanks for taking care of Hermione."

The train started moving again. A few minutes later Lupin reappeared with the conductor and two other adult wizards. They began repairing the damage to the wall, using charms to pull the pieces back together until it was finally repaired. Then they disappeared.

"So, wonder what Professor Lupin will teach?" Ron asked.

"Defence," Harry and Ginny both said. They smiled at each other.

"Do you know him?"

"I…exchanged some owls with him," Harry said. "He knew my parents. I think we might actually have a good teacher in defence this year."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

It was a miserable carriage ride up to the castle in the rain. The five friends clambered into a single carriage, making room at the last minute for Neville. By the time they reached Hogwarts they were all thoroughly soaked, that is until Hermione, Harry and Ginny began applying drying charms to anyone who asked.

They stopped when Malfoy and his entourage arrived, of course.

At the opening feast, after the sorting of first years, it was a very somber headmaster who announced that because of the escape of Sirius Black, Dementors would be guarding the castle.

"Harry," Hermione said, having read all about the events of Godric's Hollow, "you're not going to go off and do anything stupid, like hunt for Sirius Black, are you?"

Across the table Harry looked back at her with an unreadable expression. It was the first time that Hermione had ever found herself unable to read her friend's emotions. "No," he said. "I'm not going to do anything stupid."

That evening, after dinner, Harry and Ginny met Luna in the hall in front of the library. Without a word the one third year and two second years turned and walked down the hall until they reached the third class on the left.

Inside, Remus Lupin sat on an old, dilapidated chair while looking at a map. "Good evening," he said brightly. "Come in."

The three came in, closed the door, and then warded it behind them. Ginny and Harry began warding the floor and walls while Luna warded the ceiling with privacy charms.

Lupin watched in approving silence. "Very well done," he said. "Adonis did a bang up job."

"Security clearance?" Luna asked.

"Basilisk."

Luna nodded in satisfaction. "So you've been brought up to date?"

"Yes, I have. And I must say I truly appreciate the faith I've been shown so far. I'm afraid there isn't too much work available to someone in my condition, so for Zeus to take me into his confidence so thoroughly was a pleasant change."

"Of course," Luna said lightly. "If you don't work out, we'll just kill you."

Lupin smiled weakly. Evidently he did have enough clearance to realize the girl was not joking. "Well, first order of business. I want to introduce you three to the legacy of Harry's father. Come here."

The three gathered around a broken desk. "This is called the Marauder's Map," Lupin said. "In school, this allowed us to get out of more trouble than I can recall. I liberated it from your brothers, Miss Weasley."

"Remarkable," Luna said. "You obviously did the arithmancy."

"Well, yes," Lupin replied with a modest blush. "James pumped in the power, Sirius did most of the mapping for us, while I provided the spell work. It uses the same matrix the Atlas Map at the ministry does to identify citizens by their magical core. It can't be fooled by Polyjuice, animagi, invisibility cloaks or disillusionment charms. This is how we'll capture Sirius if he comes looking for you, Harry."

"Can I kill Sirius, Harry?" Luna asked.

"No," Harry said with a shake of his head. "At least not until I know why."

Luna nodded. "Okay."

"It seems strange that he would escape Azkaban and come all the way here just for Harry. What's the point?" Ginny asked.

"To finish Voldemort's job?" Remus said with a shrug. "I honestly don't know. I used to the think of the man as my brother. Now, I'm just not sure."

Harry was leaning over the map attentively. "Professor Lupin, does the map show ghosts?"

"Well, no, it doesn't."

Harry stood and pointed at the map. "Then why is this map telling me that Peter Pettigrew is in my dorm room?"

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and also to JR and Miles for additional beta reading. As always the three of them made this a better chapter.


	12. Trouble's a Brewing

Chapter 11 review responses have been posted to my forums. For some reason my forum link has disappeared, but I have pasted the URL to my Profile should any of you wish to view any answers to questions you may have posted in your reviews.

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**Chapter Twelve: Trouble's a Brewing**

According to the map, Peter Pettigrew was alive.

Which meant something was not right with the story of what happened on October 31, 1981. They sent Hedwig with a note to Xeno asking for instruction, and decided to just keep their eyes open. Though Harry was all for running out to find the supposedly dead man, Remus and Ginny both pointed out that rushing in without all the facts could make more trouble than they could handle.

"We'll wait for instructions," Remus finally said.

Because of his new status in the Department of Mysteries, the professor was in essence their boss, so Harry agreed with his decision. Thus they went on with their classes and tried not to think of the dead man walking around Hogwarts.

Classes themselves were different this year because of their electives. Ron was taking the easiest road possible—selecting Divination and Care of Magical Creatures as his electives. Hermione went to the opposite end and took all the classes until Harry finally sat down with her and said: "Hermione, you have three actual conflicts on your schedule. You're taking the equivalent of ten class hours in a six hour day, and that equates to another nine hours a day of homework. How do you think you're going to get through day to day without going crazy?"

Hermione blushed prettily. "I…I worked something out with Professor McGonagall."

Harry studied her for a long minute. "You're making a mistake."

She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. "Well, you should talk."

Suddenly he grinned. "Yeah, I suppose so, huh? Just, please don't let it bury you, okay?"

"It's covered," she assured him again.

For Harry's classes, his brief urge to follow Ron when they were selecting electives at the end of last year was quickly dismissed by Luna. "Divination is bollocks," she said bluntly. "It cannot be taught. You either have the gift, or you do not. You can more accurately predict likely future events with arithmancy than with divination. Additionally, your lessons on magical theory lead directly into arithmancy. You need to take that class if you ever wish to cast wandlessly."

Harry sighed. "I suppose so."

"You must also take Runes," Luna assured him. "Runes provide the basis of most protective and defensive magics."

So when Professor McGonagall handed out their class schedules the first morning of school, she nodded with an approving smile to Harry. "I'm pleased to see you exerting yourself, Mr Potter."

"Thank you, Professor."

He looked at his timetable while Ginny studied hers, and felt the good feelings fade. His first class was a double potions session with Slytherin. Ginny leaned over to see what made him frown, and clucked her tongue.

"Wow, that's bad. And look, it's only your year that has double potions. I don't."

"Oh, joy," Harry muttered.

The first potions class of the semester had Harry paired with a visibly nervous Neville Longbottom. They were already on their second cauldron and had lost almost fifty points from Gryffindor. Their house was already into the negatives while Slytherin accumulated thirty points.

On top of everything else, Harry had a splitting headache. It felt as if a hammer were beating against his still somewhat rudimentary Occlumency shields.

Occlumency was a basic part of the training Adonis and then Xeno Lovegood insisted on. The defense of the mind was as important as the defense of the body. However, they also recognized the inescapable fact that Harry and Ginny were still children. Regardless of their power potential, their magic would not reach it's maturity until fourteen or fifteen years old. Even with their meditation and martial arts training, they also did not have the mental maturity needed to have truly effective shields. Harry could train every day for hours on end, and still not be able to do more than make an accomplished Legilimens laugh while he tore through the basic shields. That would change once their magic matured, but until then they were up against hard limits of what they could accomplish.

However, they both had the wild imaginations of young children, and incorporated those imaginations into their mental defenses.

It was halfway through the class when Harry looked up to see Professor Snape staring hard at him. Almost immediately he felt his mental shields shatter before an outright assault. He pulled back from the attack, retreating into his dreamland of naked female Quidditch players with red and blonde hair in a desperate bid to protect his memories of training with Adonis, Ginny and Luna.

Suddenly Hermione was there. She physically stepped between the professor and Harry. "Are you okay?" she asked as Harry desperately fought off the debilitating effects of the attack.

"Headache," he managed to say.

"Miss Granger!" Snape barked in rage, "Fifty points from Gryffindor for being out of your seat. Return there now!"

Hermione looked hard at Harry before returning to her seat behind him. Harry made a point of staring down at his cauldron. Across the room Malfoy made a snide comment but Harry ignored him.

"Harry?" Neville whispered, "What's wrong?"

"Mr Potter, detention, tonight!" Snape said before Harry could answer.

Harry closed his eyes, realizing without question that he could not resist another such assault. The charm Adonis put on him last year had obviously faded, and his shields were not strong enough to withstand the assault of an accomplished Legilimens.

At lunch that day he gathered Ginny and Luna into a classroom and told them the situation.

"Well, that certainly explains a great deal," Luna finally said. "Snape was a spy for Dumbledore during the war. He was not a very good one, but evidently he had some feelings for your mother that Dumbledore parlayed into service."

"He tore through my shields like they were paper."

Luna nodded. "Then I shall go instead."

"He won't like that."

She smiled sweetly at him. "He won't know until it is too late."

"What do you mean?" Ginny asked.

"I am your Control," Luna said. "It's my job to aid you in your missions and protect you from threats." She reached over to Harry and plucked a single hair from his head. "I will have to contact Professor Lupin to get a Floo message out, but I feel fairly certain that father has some Polyjuice on hand."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

"I'm telling you, Albus, the boy had Occlumency shields!" Snape said.

He and the headmaster were enjoying an aperitif in the headmaster's office before it was time for Snape to attend to Potter's detention.

"Very strange," Albus said. "We monitored his wand closely over the holiday. The boy stayed in his home all summer. He may have played in the back garden during the days, but the wards indicated he was in the house every night. I'm not sure where he could have learned such a skill. In any event, it is of no matter. I'm sure you'll be able to find out where he learned it."

Snape growled as he finished the drink and began pacing the office. "Something is off about Potter."

"Off?"

"He's doing too well," Snape snapped. "The whole point of sending him to those blasted Muggles was to make sure he did not exert himself academically. I noticed it in the middle of last year. I'm doing what you asked of me. I'm grading him harder than the others, but that means I usually end up failing him for excellent work. More importantly, he knows it. If this keeps up he's going to get an EE on his OWLs regardless of what I do. And you know he's taking Runes and Arithmancy. Just like his mother."

"I noticed Mr Potter's grades have improved over his first year. Miss Granger's doing, no doubt."

"He no longer studies with her. My Snakes tell me his time is most spent in the company of Miss Weasley, or that blasted Lovegood girl."

Albus blinked and leaned forward in alarm. "Severus, I've not seen them spend time together. Are you sure of that?"

"She is often with him and Weasley in the library. Why? She and her father are both insane."

"Yes, they are, but still dangerous," Albus said. "I haven't been able to confirm it for sure, but I'm fairly certain Xeno was an Unspeakable at one point. And whatever issues Miss Lovegood may have, I believe he has given her a certain amount of training. Tread carefully around that girl."

"I have heard disturbing things about her," Snape agreed. "Very well. I must go. Good evening, Albus."

"Good evening, Severus."

The Potions Master stalked through the halls of the school until he reached the dungeon. He saw Potter sitting cross-legged on the floor opposite his class door.

"Come along," he snapped with his normal scowl.

Potter stood and followed him without a word. "Sit," he commanded. He pointed to a stool directly in front of his desk. He would not even pretend to do anything other than achieve his goal for the night.

He stepped around his desk and started to sit when a silver knife flew through the air and thudded into his wand arm. He cried out in shock and pain when he heard a voice say, _"Crucio!_"

Agony washed over him with an intensity approaching what Bellatrix Lestrange herself could inflict. The spell ended, but before he could recover another knife plunged in his other arm, followed by a paralyzing spell. The boy who looked like Potter, but could not possibly have been, stepped around and sat on Snape's chest.

"Hello, Professor," the Potter-figure said with a cheery voice. "How are you this evening?"

Snape was surprised he could speak. "You will go to Azkaban for this."

"I think not," Potter said with a dismissive wave of the hand. "This is Potter's wand, after all. Do you honestly think they'll throw the Boy-Who-Lived into Azkaban? But you? Using Legilimency on an underage child? While Fudge might not do anything, I promise that Amelia Bones would be very interested in that. It is not just illegal, Snape, it is reviled. It is tantamount to raping a child. Wizards have been kissed in the past for it, and I know that Ms. Bones' has very strong feelings about underage Legilimens attacks because of her personal history."

"You don't scare me," Snape lied.

"Oh yes I do," the figure said. He very casually removed another knife from his school robes, bent down, and with a flick cut off Snape's ear.

The potions master screamed and tried to thrash, but could not because of the paralyzing spell he was under.

"This is your one and only warning, Severus," the Potter figure said. "Right now Mr Potter is safe in a full body bind in his bed. If you attempt to scan his mind again, I will not just kill you. I will make you wish the Dark Lord was back so that he could _Crucio_ you into insanity. He enjoyed causing pain. But me…I live for it. Do you understand me?"

"I've felt worse," Snape cried out.

"Really?"

Potter raised the knife, still bloody from Snape's ear, and flashed it back down. Snape felt a hot agony and looked down in horror to see two of the fingers from his wand hand laying on the ground inches from his hand. Potter leaned forward until he was nose-to-nose with the straining, sweating potions brewer. "There are plenty of fingers left, _Sevvy_. Fingers ... toes ... _genitals_. You don't really need your dangly bits, do you? It's not like any girl would ever let you touch her. Lily certainly wouldn't have."

Tears streamed down Snape's face. "I'll kill you!" he hissed.

"No, you won't. You won't survive this war, Snape. One way or the other, by one wand or another, you will die. The only choice you have is whether to die in peace or pain. You've been warned. Leave Potter alone."

The figure with Lily Potter's eyes set in James Potter's face stood from his chest and sauntered casually out of the classroom, but not before placing the wand on the floor by the door.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Professor Dumbledore rushed into the Gryffindor Common room with wild eyes. The students looked up and stared. Albus saw immediately that Miss Weasley was there sitting between her twin brothers. Ron Weasley was on a couch playing a game of chess with Hermione.

"Where is Mr Potter?" Dumbledore demanded.

"He's in his room," Ron said. "Said he was tired."

Dumbledore tore past them moving much faster than a wizard his age should have been able to move. Concerned, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and the twins followed. By the time the other students arrived, Dumbledore was standing next to Harry's bed waving a wand over the boy.

"_Finite_," Dumbledore said.

Immediately Harry gasped for air, "Professor! Someone stole my wand!"

"Easy, Harry, here it is," Dumbledore said as he handed the wand over.

Harry took the wand gratefully. "Did you catch whoever took it?"

"No. Please tell me what happened."

"Well, I was walking when I felt kind of warm all over. Someone said I was tired, and I really was, so I walked upstairs and lay down to sleep. But before I went to sleep I saw a shadow sneak in and hit me with a petrifying charm. They took a strand of hair and took my wand. Why would they cut my hair, professor?"

"I don't know for sure," Dumbledore said. He looked at the other students. "Well, we'll discuss it further tomorrow. In the meantime, all students are to remain in their common rooms. I'm afraid I am going to have to lower the curfew by an hour. It appears that Sirius Black may have already attacked his first victim."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

"This is unexpected," Adonis said. The man had managed to sneak in through a secret passage in an Unspeakable Cloak that allowed him to move unobserved by Hogwarts's many wards.

Adonis, Harry, Ginny, Luna and Lupin were sitting in an abandoned stairwell that led to the secret passage their visitor used. While the wards would not detect him, if he entered Hogwarts proper the portraits or other passive monitoring methods the Headmaster employed most certainly would.

"So, Luna, you attacked Snape in order to convince him to cease his Legilimency attacks on Harry?"

"You really cut his fingers off?" Ginny asked, wide-eyed.

"It's easy to reattach fingers," Luna said lightly.

"And because you called him 'Sevvy', he believes that it was Sirius Black who attacked him?" Adonis asked.

"Yeah, I don't understand that myself," Harry said.

Adonis smiled. "Perhaps, Remus, you can fill them in."

"Are you sure?" the DADA professor said.

"It is our policy not to lie to future agents."

Lupin slouched and looked at Harry. "You know I'm a werewolf?"

"Yeah."

"Your father, Sirius and Peter learned to become Animagi to keep me company when I changed. It was the kindest thing anyone had ever done for me. But one night, as a prank, Sirius led Severus out to the Shrieking Shack where I changed each month hoping to scare him. Though, honestly I think a part of him wanted Snape mauled or even killed. The enmity there was atrocious. Your father stopped Severus and saved his life, but that cemented Severus's hatred for Sirius, and by extension, to all of us. James stole his best and only friend in Lily, and Sirius and I almost stole his life. He has hated us all since then."

Ginny, though, was bouncing on her feet. "Animagi? That's like Professor McGonagall turning into a cat, right?"

"Right."

"What if Peter Pettigrew is hiding as an animal? What was his form?"

"A rat," Remus said. "His Marauder name was Wormtail."

Ginny paled so profoundly her freckles looked black. She stared long and hard at Harry, who stared right back. "Does the map say he is still in the Gryffindor tower?"

"Yes," Lupin said as he examined the map. "In fact, Harry he looks like he's in your dorm room."

Harry and Ginny said, at the same exact moment, "Scabbers."

"You think you know him?" Adonis asked.

"Ron's rat," Ginny said. "He's missing one toe, and he's been in the family for a long time. In fact, he's almost as old as I am."

"That's a long time for a rat," Remus said.

"Fetch the rat," Adonis ordered. "Fetch him now. Stun him and bring him back here. Do not let your friends know."

Harry and Ginny nodded and left. Luna turned to go, but Adonis stopped her. "You stay here. I wish to discuss how you dealt with Snape."

Though Harry and Ginny wanted to listen in on that conversation, they realized it was not meant for their ears. Instead, they reached the entrance out of the passage, threw on Harry's cloak, and started back to the tower.

It was still before curfew, but time was getting tight.

Fortunately, Ron was in the common room with Neville, Dean and Seamus. Hermione was near the fireplace reading. The boys were laughing while eating some Bertie Bott's Every Flavor beans. Each bean made them make a different animal sound.

Harry and Ginny stayed under the cloak and managed to slip past their classmates. It was a quick dash after that to reach the third-year boy's dorm room.

They entered the room together. "How do you want to do this?" Ginny asked while still under the cloak.

"_Accio_ and then _stupefy_?"

"You're better at summoning," Ginny noted.

"On three: One, two…."

They threw off the cloak. Harry called out, "_Accio_ Scabbers!"

The rat flew off Ron's bed with an alarmed squeak. Ginny tracked it in mid-air and fired off a quick, weak stunner, not wanting to kill the animal. Then Harry snatched the stunned rat out of the air with his left hand.

"We're good," he grinned.

Ginny leaned up and kissed his cheek. "Never forget it."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

By the time they got back to their hiding place, it was well past curfew, but they didn't care. Luna was sitting perfectly still on an old stone bench with a slightly distracted expression. Lupin and Adonis were speaking in muted voices. Neither were surprised when Harry and Ginny removed their cloak.

"We got him," Harry said as he held out the stunned rat.

Adonis waved a wand over the creature and whispered, "_Revelo formus." _

A shape appeared over the rat of a lumpy man lying in the same exact position as the rat.

"By Merlin," Remus said. "All these years."

"It raises some interesting questions, doesn't it?" Adonis said. He lifted the rat from Harry's hands and simply slipped it into his pocket. "Zeus and I will interrogate Pettigrew. As far as you four are concerned, none of this happened. And Luna, remember what we spoke about."

"Of course," she said airily.

With a sharp nod, Adonis turned and strode back out of the passage.

"What was that about?" Ginny asked her friend.

Luna shrugged. "I made a tactical error," she said. "I should not have overtly attacked Snape. He approved of my taking Harry's place, but that I should have deployed my natural defences to protect my mind instead of attacking Snape outright."

"Why did you?" Harry asked.

She blinked at him under the flickering light of the torches. "Because he hurt you, of course."

Harry and Ginny shared a glance before holding out their hands. "Come on," Ginny said. "Let's get you to your dorm."

"Do I need to accompany you?" Lupin asked.

"You might wish monitor us on the map," Harry suggested. "Just in case we get caught. We'd much rather have detentions with you."

"You're going to anyway," Lupin said. "With all the Dementors around, you need to learn the Patronus Charm."

"Yes," Harry agreed. He slipped an arm around Luna's waist, while Ginny did the same from the other side, and the three youths disappeared under the invisibility cloak.

Lupin followed a moment later.

Naturally, they ran into Snape not even halfway to the dorm.

The three of them went perfectly still when they heard the footsteps. Moments later the hall illuminated as Snape cast a lighting charm. His long hook nose glistened. There was absolutely no sign of the trauma to his hand, or to his ear. Whatever else Hogwarts could boast, it had a most accomplished mediwitch.

"Who's there?" Snape snarled.

"Hello, Severus."

Into the circle of light stepped Remus. The potion master's expression morphed into a disdainful sneer. "Lupin," he said.

"I didn't intend to meet anyone on my stroll, but I'm glad I ran into you," the professor said. "I wished to thank you for the Wolfsbane potion. It worked quiet well last week."

"I will do whatever necessary to keep the students safe," Snape said dryly.

"Yes, I know you will," Lupin said. He paused. "Are you all right?"

"I am fine," Snape snapped. "No thanks to your friend."

"Severus, do you really believe Sirius snuck all the way into the school just to cut off your ear and two fingers?"

"He was trying to protect his godson."

Nearby, Harry stiffened. He felt Ginny touch his back.

Luna for some reason grabbed his bum in a tight grip, which made it that much harder for him not to cry out.

"And yet he supposedly tried to get that Godson killed. Does that really make sense?"

"Nothing about Black makes sense," Snape said. "His whole family was insane."

"Sadly I can't argue with you there," Lupin said. "But I would like you to think about this, Severus. Sirius truly, genuinely hated you. If an escapee from a life term in Azkaban with nothing at all to lose had you incapacitated with a knife to your paralyzed throat, do you really think he would let you go? No, whether he's good or bad, sane or otherwise, if that were truly Sirius Black you would be dead."

"I'll take your opinion under advisement," Snape said in such a way as to make it clear he wouldn't.

"Of course ... Well, good night, Severus. Thank you again for the potion. Lily always did say you were a prodigy at the craft."

He turned and walked out of the sphere of Snape's light. After he was gone, Harry stood frozen, his eyes locked on the professor's face, while Ginny rubbed his back and Luna continued to grasp his right buttock.

There was something Harry had never seen in the hated potions professor's face, and it appeared after the mention of Harry's mother's name. Snape's sneer melted away before a frown—a frown of sadness.

Snape dismissed the light spell and stalked away, muttering under his breath.

"That was close," Ginny whispered when they were sure he was gone.

"Er, Luna, can you get your hand off my arse?"

Ginny bent over to stare at Luna. "Why are you holding his bum?"

"You were touching his back, so there wasn't room there," she answered calmly.

"Come on," Harry said with a furious blush.

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and also to JR and Miles for additional beta reading. As always the three of them made this a better chapter.


	13. Quidditch Issues

Chapter 12 review responses are available in my ff dot net forums. I apologize in advance for the snarky tone in some. I was grumpy when I wrote them, but not because of the reviews themselves.

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**Chapter Thirteen: Quidditch Issues**

They resumed their training every weekend in, of all places, the Shrieking Shack. Remus had the shack so thoroughly warded that it was nigh impenetrable, and it was a perfect place to meet with Xeno for their martial arts training every Saturday. Sunday was spent studying advanced spells, hexes and curses. And Patronus Charms.

Harry was the first to summon a mist. "Don't be too concerned," Remus assured Ginny and Luna. "His magic is a little more mature, so that's to be expected. Just recall the happiest memory you can. Let the feeling of that memory fill you up, and the do the incantation. In this magic, the wand movement and words are less important than the happy memory."

Ginny kept trying, while Harry progressed from a small silver mist to a large cloud of silver mist. Luna, however, lowered her wand and stopped trying.

"Luna?" Remus asked.

"Sadly I do not have any happy memories," the blonde girl said. "Father warned me I would have difficulty with this spell."

"You have no happy memories of all? Perhaps from your early childhood?"

"When I remember my mother too clearly, I can't help but recall the feeling of pain from the curse that killed her. It was a variation of the Cruciatus curse and is ever so painful."

"So thinking about your mother makes you feel the pain curse?" Harry whispered.

"Sadly, yes."

She sat down on one of the benches Adonis had brought in and started working on a cryptogram instead of trying to master the spell.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The night before the team Quidditch tryouts, Ginny Weasley walked up the stairs to the fifth year girls' dorm room and knocked on the door. Angelina Johnson opened it. The older girl was clad in a luxurious acromantula silk dressing gown.

"Weasley," she said, sounding friendly enough.

Ginny forced a smile. "Hi. Is…is Alicia in there?"

"She is," Angelina said, her smile fading a bit. "So is Katie. What can we do for you?"

"Can we talk Quidditch for a little while?"

Angelina thought a moment before she opened the door and let the younger girl in. Immediately Ginny felt like a child in a room of athletic, attractive fifteen year old girls. All were significantly more developed than she was, and all of them were gorgeous. And, at least from Alicia's expression, they were not too happy to see her there.

"Hi," Ginny said weakly. "I…I'm glad you're all here. I guess this is for all of you. Can I…can I sit down?"

"Relax Ginny," Katie said. "We're not going to eat you."

Ginny sighed and let her shoulders slump. "You have no idea how hard it was coming up here."

"Have a seat," Angelina said, pointing to a bench at the foot of her four-poster. Ginny sat and the other three girls pulled up benches to form a circle.

"First…" Ginny said. "Ahh, Alicia, I'm sorry about last year. I swear I didn't know that Luna was going to do that."

"She threatened to kill my sister," Alicia said in a flat tone of voice. "McGonagall didn't believe me."

"Err, yeah." Ginny took a deep breath. "Look, Luna has some issues."

All the older girls snorted.

"But she thought she was helping me. She thought I should be a starter and did what she thought was the logical thing in order to open up a space. But the first match, well, you weren't talking to me and I don't blame you."

"She should be locked up."

This time Ginny was the one who snorted. "The prisoners and dementors wouldn't be safe from her if they did," she said. "Anyway, I've asked her to not do anything like that again. And she won't."

"Like that loony bin will listen to you," Katie said derisively. "She'll do anything I ask," Ginny said with absolute certainty. "Anyway, what I'm trying to say Alicia is that the position is yours. I won't even try out if you want it back. It shouldn't have been mine last year anyway, and now that I know why you didn't play, I don't want it."

"And what does Harry think about it?"

"He was mortified over what happened," Ginny admitted. "We both had a talk with Luna."

"I bet she's real sorry." Alicia's sarcasm was almost palpable.

"Luna doesn't feel sorrow," Ginny said, then stopped abruptly when she realized she said too much. A heartbeat later, she continued: "Anyway, Harry agrees that the position is yours if you want it. As much as I enjoyed playing…and I really enjoyed it…it wasn't right or fair to you."

The three older girls sat in silence, observing Ginny. She looked around, and saw that there were two more beds and realized that there were others still downstairs. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she realized they were missing three roommates. Katie was a fourth year, so she wouldn't sleep in this room. She dismissed the thought, though. Instead, she bowed her head and waited for their pronouncement that she wouldn't be able to play anymore.

"That took real guts, Weasley," Alicia finally said. "It wasn't right, and it wasn't fair. I still think Lovegood should be expelled. But it took guts for you to come up and say this."

Ginny fought hard not to let the older girls see her cry. "Thank you."

"Problem is I want the team to win more than I want to play," Alicia continued. "We were actually talking about it just now. You're good, Ginny, damn good. And the way you and Harry played together last year was some of the best flying anyone of us have ever seen. Even Professor McGonagall said she hasn't seen Seeker-Chaser coordination like that on a school team before. And your brother may be a rude, gross twit, but he brought some good plays to the team."

Ginny did not dare let herself hope. "So…"

"I told Ollie I'm interested in being a reserve chaser. And I think you should try out for reserve seeker, too. On that Nimbus of yours, you're almost as fast as Harry."

Ginny couldn't help herself. She bounced forward to wrap the older girl in a tight hug. "Oh thank you!" she gushed. "Thank you! I won't let you down. I promise!"

"Better not," Alicia said, barely tolerating the hug.

"Now get out of here, squirt," Katie said.

Ginny was too thrilled to be offended. "Okay, thank you thank you! Harry's going to be so happy! Thank you!"

"Get out," all three girls shouted.

Ginny giggled and ducked out of the room. She rushed down to the common room where Harry was being slaughtered by Ron in chess. Without thinking, Ginny nearly tackled him in a hug. "I'm on the team!" she said, right before kissing him square on the lips.

Immediately the older students started making catcalls. Ron was slowly flushing bright red. "What's this now?" he demanded.

Ginny pulled back, blushing brilliantly, as did Harry. Around them the older students began clapping and laughing. Ron, however, was not smiling at all.

"Ron," Hermione began.

Ron jerked away from her. "Not talking to you or your murdering cat," he snarled in uncharacteristic anger. "Why are you kissing my sister, Harry?"

"Ron, I didn't…."

"_I_ kissed _him_, Ron," Ginny snapped. "Because I was happy. Because he's my friend."

"You think mum wants you kissing boys?"

"Do you think she wants you kissing boys?" Ginny snapped back, for a moment channelling Luna.

Ron blinked as his brain tripped. "What…? What's that… no. What you talking about?"

"Ron," Hermione said again.

"No!" Ron snapped. "It's bad enough you let Crookshanks eat Scabbers. You're not going to defend Harry. He just kissed my twelve-year-old sister. Mum is going to kill him."

Hermione then did the most brilliant thing she had ever done. She stepped up, grabbed the ranting boy's face, and pulled him down into a long kiss. She let him go and pushed him back.

"And poor little Scabbers never got a….what?" It literally took Ron seven words to realize Hermione had just kissed him.

"There, now you've kissed me," Hermione snapped with a twinkle in her eye. "You tell on Ginny, she'll tell on you, and where will that leave anyone?"

"Why'd you do that…?" Ron whispered.

"To shut you up," Hermione snapped. "One—Crookshanks did not eat Scabbers. He brings any rats he kills to me as a trophy. He doesn't eat them. Second, you are such a boy!" She turned to Ginny. "Come on, let's go talk about them behind their backs."

"Okay!" Ginny said brightly, still buzzing over her conversation with her teammates. The two disappeared up the stairs while Ron collapsed weak-kneed onto the couch.

"What was all that then?" he asked Harry.

"Mate, I have no idea," Harry said. "I was just playing chess."

"No, you were losing," Ron said. Around them, life continued, though they were getting a few grins from the older students.

Finally, Ron shook his head and reset the board. "Hey, Harry," he said.

"Yeah?"

"You can't date her until she's fourteen. Family rules. Applies all of us—I can't date until I'm fourteen either."

Harry thought about it. "Okay."

"Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't hurt her."

"Promise. You neither."

"Okay."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Tryouts went very quickly. Alicia did not even have to try out to make the reserve team, and for the most part it was just a practice session for the returning starters. It was Oliver Wood's final season, and he was bound and determined to win the cup two years running.

"…And finally, I want to make it official. Ron Weasley is now our student coach. Professor McGonagall had him added onto the team roster."

The team applauded the brightly blushing Ron, who nodded and beamed under the attention.

"All right, first practice is this Friday. Be ready!"

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

"Thank you, Professor Flitwick," Dumbledore said courteously. Professor Snape, your report?"

It was the Hogwart's first month's Staff Review—a chance for them go over student behavior and point additions or deductions. "I wish to renew my request for the immediate expulsion of Miss Luna Lovegood," Snape said.

"Oh Merlin, what is it this time, Severus?" Flitwick sighed.

"She assaulted Mr. Malfoy," Snape said.

"She's half his size!" Flitwick said.

"You're half mine," Snape pointed out. "And yet I have been told you are a most accomplished dueller."

"Because I'm ninety-two years old!" Flitwick snapped back. "Miss Lovegood is twelve and Mr. Malfoy is thirteen."

"How did this assault occur, Severus?" Dumbledore asked.

"It occurred while Draco was attempting to study in the library…."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Draco sat near the corner alcove with the stained glass window depicting two gaily dressed elves playing in the woods. Goyle and Crabbe sat nearby eating Cauldron Cakes, while Pansy Parkinson snickered right behind him.

"Oh, get Edgecomb! She's such a stuck up little cow," Pansy said.

Draco pointed his wand and shot an invisible itching hex at the fourth year student.

Marietta swatted at her neck as if stung and started scratching.

"Look!" Pansy said. "It's Potter and that Weasley cow."

Draco's eyes widened as he saw Harry and Ginny sit at a table with their satchels. Ginny sat right next to Potter as he removed his arithmancy text from his book bag and the two started pouring over it.

"Is he getting help in class from a second year?" Draco exulted.

"Poor, Muggle-raised idiot," Pansy said, and then snickered. "Get 'em both."

"Oh, this calls for more than just an itching hex," Malfoy said. "This calls for something more effective. Something my father taught me. It's called the _Forceps mihi_ hex."

"What does it do?"

"It'll make Weasley think he's pinching her bum."

"Ohh. But what if she likes it?"

"Then that shall be its own entertainment," Draco assured her, imitating his father's snooty tones. He raised his wand, pointed, and jabbed out the hex. Unfortunately, at that exact moment Luna Lovegood walked directly into the path of the hex.

She stopped as her already large eyes widened a little, then turned and looked at Draco. Slowly she started walking toward him, actually swaying her near non-existent hips as she did so. "Why Draco," she purred, "I didn't know you liked pinching girl's bums."

"What are you talking about, Loony?" Draco sneered.

"Well, you are always hanging out with boys ... And Pansy. So naturally I thought you liked boys."

Draco's face burned bright red as he shot to his feet. "Why you…"

"While I, on the other hand," Luna said in an uncharacteristically deep voice, "am most definitely not a boy." She slowly undid the top of her robe and pulled it down to show an unseemly expanse of pale, perfect skin. "Would you like to see how much of a girl I am?"

"Draco, let's go!" Pansy whined, looking in alarm at both Lovegood and Draco.

"You don't have it in you," Draco said with an eager grin.

"Not yet," Luna said. "Would you like to have it in me?"

Pansy flushed beet red. "Draco!"

Draco, though, was paralyzed by the strange second year girl as she continued to sway toward him with her half-lidded eyes. Luna stepped right to him, embracing him. "Let me show you just what a real witch can do," she whispered.

Nearby, Ginny and Harry looked up in alarm at the howl of anguished pain that tore through the library. Luna backed away from a hunched-over Draco, while Pansy glared death and Crabbe and Goyle winced in sympathy. Madame Pince rushed to see what the matter was.

"Why, he touched me in a most unseemly manner," Luna said loudly. "I am a witch of pure blood. No one touches me like that without consequence."

Madam Pince nodded, "Quite right, child. Mr. Malfoy, you should know better! And a second year as well! For shame!"

Luna buttoned her school robe back up and then walked insouciantly to the table with Ginny and Harry and sat down on Harry's free side. "So, are you showing Ginny your first lessons?"

"Yes," Harry said. "Should I even bother asking about that?"

"He pinched my bum with a spell. So I crushed his bits with my knee. It seemed the appropriate level of response. Was I wrong?"

She asked the last with genuine concern, having had her last few decisions openly criticized. Harry and Ginny, though, both grinned as Draco's followers led him, still hunched over, out of the library. "No, I think you got this one perfect."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

"The unwarranted attack has caused Draco's father great concern," Snape finished.

"Because his lineage was at risk?" Sprout asked with a girlish giggle, "Or because his prized son had his danglies handed to him by a second year girl?"

"Pomona, please," Albus said.

Flitwick simply chuckled while McGonagall kept her face perfectly straight, save for the slightest quiver of her lower lip.

Madam Pince huffed. "Severus, I was the faculty on duty at that time and I am of the opinion that Mr. Malfoy got what was coming to him. He most certainly was not studying, and Miss Lovegood's robes were in disarray."

"There you have it," Albus said with feigned regret. "Now, let's move on to class attendance, shall we…"

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The opening game between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor proceeded with expert play from both sides. The Hufflepuffs had adopted some of the techniques Ron brought to the Lions the previous year. Cedric Diggory was an excellent flier, though a little larger and slower than Harry.

What Cedric did not have, though, was the chaser team of Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell and Ginny Weasley to work with. Though he made several excellent plays, the Hufflepuff chasers were just not quite as good, and soon, despite the raging storm, the Gryffindors had racked up a significant lead.

The game looked like it was in danger of going into the night. The weather was so horrible that neither seeker could even pretend to see the snitch.

After almost three hours of play, Wood called a timeout. "All right, Harry," he said, "I think with a hundred and eighty point lead we can lay off the team dynamics. Get that snitch so we can go in. I'm exhausted."

"I'm cold," Katie sniffed.

"I have to pee," George said.

"Go ahead," Fred said.

"Right-o," George said.

Angelina and Katie went, "That is gross!"

Ginny just rolled her eyes. "We're all so wet it's not like it'd make a difference."

"Did warm me up a bit," George said with a grin.

"Right, first get the snitch," Harry agreed. "And second, no one touches George's broom after the game."

The rest of the team readily agreed and they broke back into play.

Harry left off from the regular altitude of play and began circling the pitch in a hard search to get the snitch. Cedric continued to coordinate with his chasers for a few plays, but then noticed Harry was concentrating on finding the snitch. The Hufflepuff had no choice but to do the same and hope his team could make up enough of the deficit to allow a come-back if he grabbed the snitch first.

Harry saw the snitch first. He made no effort to trick Cedric—like the others he just wanted the game to be done. Unfortunately the snitch did not seem to have an interest in being caught. It flew straight up toward the worst of the swirling clouds.

Harry ground his teeth, swore under his breath, and shot right up after it. He knew his broom could go as high as his magic could power it, so as long as he had air to breathe he would be fine.

Being already so chilled, he did not notice immediately how the water on his uniform began to ice over. Nor did he immediately notice the ice forming in the tips of his hair. However, he did notice the ice forming on his glasses, which he had charmed to be weather-proof.

Suddenly he broke through a low lying layer of clouds and froze on his broom.

The sky bristled with dementors—hundreds of them flew in a cyclone directly above him. Almost as one, the faceless, demonic creatures turned to him and dove.

Harry saw flashes of green and heard a woman screaming, "_Not Harry! No_!"

Then everything went dark.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Ginny heard Lee announce that Cedric had caught the snitch. Gryffindor still won because of their hefty lead, but it surprised her. Harry really was the better seeker. She looked up to see what had happened and felt her heart thudding in her chest.

Harry was falling, and a black swarm of dementors was following him down to the ground. "No," she whispered.

She shot forward as fast as she could, hugging herself to her broom as she flew faster than she had ever flown. She pulled her wand to try her still inadequate Patronus when she heard Headmaster Dumbledore bellow, _"Expecto Patronum!_"

An instant later a huge silver phoenix shot past Ginny and slammed into the horde of dementors, scattering them like so many puffs of air. Ginny dismissed them and concentrated on the immediate threat of Harry falling. She poured on speed and managed to reach him just moments before he hit. She grabbed the edge of his robes and cried out as his weight yanked hard at her shoulder and fingers.

Her hand began to slip on the ice that covered him, and she knew he couldn't hold him.

A moment later Cedric was there, followed almost immediately by the twins. With the three larger, stronger boys' help they got Harry to the ground safely. She jumped off her broom and knelt down beside him.

"Oh Harry, please wake up!" she sobbed.

She felt hands on her shoulders and looked up to see Fred and George on either side. "He'll be okay, Gin-Gin," Fred said. "You caught him. He'll be okay."

"Why is it always him?" she asked, though inside she knew why.

By the time Professors Lupin, McGonagall and Dumbledore arrived Harry was already blinking his eyes.

"Hi, Gin," he whispered. "Did we win? My broom's okay, right?"

It was so typically Harry that Ginny couldn't help but laugh even through her tears.

* * *

sp

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and also to JR and Miles for additional beta reading. As always the three of them made this a better chapter.


	14. To Catch a Grim

Chapter 13 Review Responses are available on my forums.**  
**

_**WARNING**_: The latter half of this chapter contains sexually suggestive violence. I did not particularly enjoy writing it, but felt it was necessary for the story to establish a certain character as being more than just a spoiled brat. I will understand if you wish to skip this scene, which begins after the section break.

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen: To Catch a Grim**

Amelia Bones poured herself a glass of brandy, settled back in her favorite chair, and stared into the fire.

It had been a very long day.

Amelia was young for the position she had. She was in fact only forty years old, the youngest head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement ever, and the only woman. This made her hold on job tenuous at best. She was appointed by Millicent Bagnold in one of the former Minister's last acts. Bagnold had been her patron, advisor and friend. But Fudge was not the same caliber of leader Bagnold was, and she found herself losing ground both within the Ministry and within the Department itself almost on a daily basis.

Only her family name, her political acumen, and her not inconsiderable magical power allowed her to hang on as long as she had.

Her fire suddenly flared green. "Amelia, are you there?" a disembodied voice called.

"Who is it?" Amelia asked.

"Xenophilius Lovegood."

Amelia cocked a brow, then drained her brandy and drew her wand just to be safe. "You may come through." She undid the security lock on the fire with a jab of her wand, and a moment later the wiry old wizard stepped through. He straightened and looked around the austere living room of Bones Manor.

"Amelia," he said with a nod. "You're looking as lovely as ever."

"You're looking…"

"Old, I know," Xeno said. "I still don't know how I got Selene to marry me despite our age difference."

"What can I do for you, Xeno? Is Luna in trouble again?"

"No more than usual," Xeno smiled. "She found some peers who act as social anchors at school, and I think that is helping a great deal. They both care for her and help keep her balanced. You may have heard of them—Arthur Weasley's daughter Ginny, and Harry Potter."

"Harry Potter?" Amelia asked, genuinely surprised. She knew that the Weasley girl was a friend of Luna, and moreover she knew of the many difficulties Luna had suffered. She had dealt with several of the girl's indiscretions magically when she was younger. The indiscretions had unfortunately been shockingly violent in nature.

"Well, I wanted to ask you a few questions, if you had the time. What do you remember of the Black case?"

Amelia stared hard at the man for a long time, before she leaned over and poured herself another brandy. Though she knew it was terribly rude, she did not offer him any. Instead, she took the glass in a single gulp. "I prefer not to talk about Sirius Black. As soon as he's caught, the Minister has left standing orders that he is to be given the Dementor's Kiss."

"Yes, interesting that. I understand you knew Black very well."

"He was a fourth year when I finished Hogwarts," Amelia said. "We saw each other occasionally afterward, but he was a notorious ladies man. In fact, the man was a dog, and it does not surprise me that he turned traitor. Again, I prefer not to talk about it."

Xeno nodded but continued nevertheless. "Do you remember his trial?"

She started to snort in dismissal, but stopped. She was a senior Auror at the time. "No, actually I don't."

"He never received one," Xeno said. "Instead he was simply sent to Azkaban. I can even understand why. At the scene he was screaming about it being his fault, but nonetheless, while people like Lucius Malfoy received trials, Sirius Black was sent straight to Azkaban. I wonder why that is?"

"Xeno, I really don't want to talk about Sirius."

"Harry Potter is a sport."

Amelia blinked, completely caught off guard by the change in the conversation. "Excuse me?"

"His magical potential is completely off the scale. Given the right environment to grow up in, and with even minimally competent training, he could easily be more powerful than Dumbledore or Voldemort."

"Why don't I know this?" Amelia said.

"Because you are not the Head Unspeakable."

Amelia stared long and hard at the man as all the pieces started to fall into place. "Algie…"

"Algie is my public face for the Ministry," Xeno said.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because, aside from her sociopathic tendencies, my daughter has a near preternatural talent at arithmantic projections. She ran a projection this summer; she predicted that not only would Voldemort return, but that he would successfully kill you and overthrow the Ministry because of Cornelius Fudge's likely handling of what is to come."

"Voldemort is dead."

"Just like Sirius Black is guilty."

"Xeno, it's been a long day." By her expression it was obvious Amelia did not like where this was going.

"Peter Pettigrew is alive, Amelia. And he wears the Dark Mark. We have him in our custody and he has confessed to everything. He has named names; he betrayed the Potters. He killed the Muggles, and then staged his own death in order to frame Black. Despite the obvious conclusions, he did this on the direct orders of someone other than Voldemort."

"What do you mean?" She was right to not like where the conversation was going, since it was getting worse and worse.

"Did you know that Harry Potter used to receive beatings from his relatives any time he got a better grade than his muggle cousin in school? That he has been consistently starved for almost the whole of his life? What happens to a magical child suffering a life of malnutrition and abuse, Amelia, when they reach magical maturity?"

"They're power is stunted, of course."

"Exactly."

"But…."

"Albus Dumbledore believes that Harry is a weapon. He believes that Harry must die at the hands of Voldemort in order for Voldemort himself to die. He believes this because Harry carries a fragment of the Dark Lord's soul in his scar."

"Xeno, do you even know what you're…"

"And that is one reason why we know Voldemort is not truly gone," the old wizard continued implacably. "That is why Dumbledore knowingly sent the wrong man to prison for twelve years: to ensure that Black never received custody of Harry. This way Dumbledore was able to ensure Harry was beaten and starved, and would most likely never reach his full potential. You know the Miltventor score is meaningless until magical maturity sets in."

"These are impossible accusations," she said. "Dumbledore is the chief warlock of the Wizengamot, and Fudge hangs on his every word. Even if I were to believe you, this is so far above my head that action would be inconceivable. I'd lose my job, maybe even my life, trying to pursue something like this."

"Perhaps, perhaps not. We have already started training Harry and slipping him nutrient potions in his food. We've placed him in a team with the Weasley girl. Luna serves as their control. They are already showing remarkable progress—as you would expect of a wizard with almost unlimited magical potential, and a witch whose power will vastly surpass even your own upon her maturity."

"Xeno, my Milventnor score was 95th percentile."

"I know. I tested you myself when you were a baby."

Amelia went very still. "What do you want of me?"

"We cannot afford to completely alienate Dumbledore," Xeno said. "He is still a sport himself, and if it came down to a fight he could likely defeat the whole staff of the Department of Mysteries. There is an exponential difference in power between sports and the rest of us. But we can blunt his political power by removing Fudge and blunt Voldemort's power by removing his supporters from the Ministry. Black is our ticket. Barty Crouch Sr. was essential in getting Black thrown in Azkaban without trial, but Fudge was fully aware of it as well, and Pettigrew can testify to the fact that one must voluntarily take the Dark Mark. If you bring Black and Pettigrew in and prove that Black is innocent, there's a very good chance you can discredit Fudge."

"And then Crouch would replace him. Barty is not much better."

"No, he's actually quite unacceptable. He carries too much baggage because of his son. No, we would want someone relatively young and powerful, but with proven experience. A current department head with a law enforcement background, for example." Xeno paused and pointed at her expectantly.

"You're joking! I'm a forty-year-old woman. The Wizengamot will never go for that."

"I'm not without resources."

"And if I don't agree?"

"I'll obliviate you for the safety of young Harry and Ginny. I only tell you now because you have very good Occlumency shields. And, frankly, I've known you long enough to trust you."

"Xeno, what you're suggesting just seems so impossible. You're suggesting a coup…"

"We need to get Harry some place over the holidays where he can truly and openly train. He's approaching his magical maturity in the next few years. Black is his godfather. It was in the Potters' will that Harry be given to Black: a will that Dumbledore specifically sealed. Black may be many things, but he genuinely loves that boy, just as he loved his friends. If in the process of righting that wrong we can get a new Ministry that will actively fight against Voldemort, well, all the better, in my opinion."

Whether worn down by Xeno's relentlessness or his logic, Amelia sighed in defeat. "You'll have to convince Black to come in, and then you'll have to figure out a way for him to get into the Wizengamot chamber. For that matter, you'll have to find a way to keep Fudge from having him kissed right there on the spot."

"Well, before that, we need to catch him."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The week before Christmas break, Malfoy carried out a plan for revenge against Luna.

The humiliation Draco suffered in the library was worse than any pain as far as he was concerned, and the fact that the Lovegood girl was not punished at all was even more unbearable. Snape did his part to deduct points and give her detentions, but she did not show any sign of caring.

The one time Snape tried Legilimency on her he immediately pulled back with a horrid headache. The disjointed storm of memory produced a near _Crucio-_like pain accompanied by images of a woman, most likely her mother. That one attempt convinced him to not enter her mind again. It also confirmed for him that Luna Lovegood was pathologically insane. So why was she allowed to stay in school at all? Snape asked some of her year mates what they thought of her—the Ravenclaws did not resent Draco's godfather like the some of the other houses did. They respected his knowledge and skill, and shared to a certain extent, his disdain for stupidity.

The classmates refused to talk about Luna, except for one girl who said, "She'll kill us if she finds out."

"Surely you are exaggerating," Snape said.

"No, I'm not," the girl said. "Luna's scary."

And so when Malfoy mentioned the lack of respect he faced from his housemates over the incident in the library, and showed Snape correspondence from Lucius expressing his concern, Severus gave Malfoy tacit permission to stage a bit of revenge.

"Do not kill her," Snape ordered. "Injury is fine. No less than the little psychopath deserves."

"What if she dies accidentally?"

"That would be unfortunate," Snape said. "Make sure no one can link either of us to whatever you are doing."

Malfoy merely smiled.

On the Tuesday during the week before Christmas Holidays, Luna was surprised to emerge from the Ravenclaw commons for dinner to find Harry Potter waiting for her. She blinked. "Harry? Where is Ginny?"

"She went on ahead," Harry said with an unusually suave smile. "I was hoping to talk to you for a little while."

"Very well; where shall we go?"

"The Astronomy Tower?"

"Okay."

Luna walked calmly alongside Harry toward the tower. When they reached the top, Luna stood and waited patiently. Harry was the first to speak. "So, Luna, do you like me?"

"Of course. You and Ginny are my frame of reference."

"Er, righto, then. So how much do you like me? Would you do something if I asked you?"

"I would do anything you asked of me, as I have told you before."

"So if I asked you to take your clothes off?"

"Do you wish me to do so now?"

Harry struggled to keep his face still. "Yes, Luna, I would like that."

"Very well. Please note that I am still only twelve and have not developed very much to look at." With that, she calmly began pulling off her school robes until she stood completely nude before the stunned figure with Harry Potter's face.

She looked very boyish, with only the beginnings of breasts and a few curls of light blond pubic hair and gentle swells of pre-pubescent breasts. The strange thing was that she stood there in the nude as calmly as she was a moment before in her robes.

"Now, there is something else I want you to do," Harry said. He lifted his wand.

"That is not Harry Potter's wand," Luna said, her voice suddenly going cold.

"I know. _Imperio_."

This was the most dangerous part of the plan, and the one Draco was least sure of. The _Imperius_ was a difficult spell that required great will power; he could not hold it long even against Crabbe and Goyle. But what worked in his favor was Luna's own broken psyche-she had no innate ability to resist it at all.

Draco dropped back a step in fear as Luna lunged forward, her face an icy mask, until the spell hit, that is. The wand was not Draco's normal wand, but a hold out wand his father bought for him the year before. It was untraceable. At first he was afraid he'd done the spell wrong—it was actually quite difficult. But almost immediately Luna's face went lax and she stood still.

"Luna, I wish you to take this razor" he handed it over, "and carve 'I am Potter's Whore' on your stomach. Then you are to go to the Great Hall. Do so now."

Luna took the razor and began cutting into her stomach. Draco watched with stunned fascination as the blood rolled down her stomach into the thighs and down her legs. He was aroused, but remembered his godfather's warning against implicating himself. As much as he wanted to play more with the girl under his complete control, doing so ran the risk of leaving traces of himself to be tracked. It was one of the many things his father taught him.

She finished her carving while trembling in pain.

"Go now," Draco ommanded in Harry Potter's voice, while wearing Harry Potter's face.

She turned and walked down the stairs. Meanwhile, Draco walked over to the closet that held the Astronomy Class telescopes and pulled out his own Nimbus 2001. He tucked his holdout wand in his robes and flew down the tower. He would make it into the Great Hall well before Luna. His timing was exquisite as the Polyjuice began to fade even as he jumped.

In the Great Hall itself, Harry was eating with Ginny and the twins while discussing their holidays. This time he had elected to return to the Dursleys for the holidays, with the understanding he would be using the dedicated Floo there to train at the Lovegood house. McGonagall seemed surprised, but Harry assured her it was all right.

"Personally I can't wait," Ginny was saying. "What are you getting me for Christmas?"

Harry shrugged. "If I tell you it won't be a surprise."

Ron looked from one to another. "Better not be anything that would upset Mum."

Hermione blew a strand of hair from her face. "Harry, you'd better send that lingerie back, then. You know Mrs. Weasley would faint if she saw it." She winked at Ginny.

Ron turned bright red. "You…"

"She's joking, mate," Harry assured his friend. "Ginny can open her gift in front of your mum and be perfectly safe. Promise."

"Not funny, Hermione," Ron whined.

Ginny snickered. "I thought it was funny."

They turned when they heard laughter. The Ravenclaw table was laughing at something near the main entrance. Harry looked up and felt his stomach grow cold. It was Luna, standing perfectly nude. Her stomach had the words "I am Potter's Whore" written in what looked like blood.

"Oh Merlin, Luna!" Ginny whispered.

The professors had risen and were already approaching the girl. But Harry didn't wait for them. He flew over the table with Ginny a step behind. He already had his robe off while the Ravenclaws and Slytherins continued to laugh.

Harry almost tackled Luna as he covered her in the coat and pulled her out of the great hall. The moment they were in the passageway, Harry pulled her onto his lap. She immediately started shaking as the spell wore off.

Moments later Dumbledore and McGonagall arrived, with Flitwick trying his best to come after. "What is the meaning of this?" McGonagall demanded.

Harry, though, was braving his friend's nudity to see her stomach. "That's not paint," he raged. "Someone cut her!"

"Why, I did," Luna said as she looked up at him. "You asked me to, just a few minutes ago in the Astronomy Tower. You handed me the razor yourself. Then you showed me your wand. But it wasn't your wand and…." She blinked from his face to Ginny's. "I do believe he used the _Imperius_ Curse on me."

"Luna," Ginny said through her tears, "Harry's been with me in the Great Hall for an hour. We were wondering where you were."

"Oh," Luna said. She lifted a blood-soaked hand to push her hair back. The hand shook violently. Harry pulled her arm back down into the folds of his robe and adjusted her hair tenderly. "It would seem that it was someone impersonating Harry again. I'm very sorry to have embarrassed you, Harry. Sadly, I cannot fight curses like the _Imperius_."

Nearby, McGonagall was pale. "Someone used an unforgivable in this school?"

"I wonder which son of an acquitted Death Eater would know an unforgivable at such a young age," Harry snarled. "This is Malfoy's revenge for her defending herself in the library."

"I'm going to kill him," Ginny said.

"You will do nothing of the sort!" McGonagall said. "You will let the staff handle this. In the meantime, you will get Miss Lovegood to the hospital wing at once."

"I'll accompany you," Flitwick said.

When the four were gone, McGonagall turned to Dumbledore. "I doubt we'll be able to prove a thing, but you know he's right. It is exactly the sort of thing that Malfoy boy would do."

"But again, it is a matter of proof," Dumbledore said. "I had hoped Lucius would be off the board of governors by now, but that has proven difficult. I cannot afford to appear to hold a bias against his son."

McGonagall hissed and stalked away from the headmaster.

In the hospital wing, Pomfrey set up privacy curtains and had the young girl healed in just minutes. She then had Luna don a hospital gown before she allowed her friends and her head of house to see her.

"Feel better, Miss Lovegood?" Professor Flitwick asked.

"Sadly, no," Luna said. "The cuts were a minor thing. Physical pain is merely an illusion the body uses to inform our brains of potential damage. It can be dismissed. I am rather distressed by having caused my friends embarrassment."

"I'm not embarrassed, Luna," Harry said. "I'm angry."

"I am too," Ginny said. "It had to be Malfoy. It's his revenge for the library incident."

"I suppose we should kill him, then," Luna said with a sigh.

"Such jokes are not funny, Miss Lovegood," Flitwick said.

She looked up at him with her owlish eyes. "Professor, have I ever told you had much I admire you?"

"No, you have not, but I appreciate the sentiment."

"Do you know why?"

"No, I do not."

"Because in the last war you killed three Death Eaters when they threatened a Muggleborn you were escorting to Diagon Alley. You did not try to capture them or play with them; you used your formidable duelling skills to remove the threat as soon as possible. You should know that Draco Malfoy is a comparable threat. What he did today was nothing. He will do worse when his father's master returns. You should know this."

"Miss Lovegood…."

"She's right, Professor," Harry said. "Voldemort isn't dead. He tried to return during my first year, and again second year, but we stopped that one before it started. I guess it's really only a matter of time. When it does happen, we can't afford to just go around stunning people."

"You are children," Flitwick said. "You are too young to have to think about such things!"

"And yet the first blow has been struck against us," Luna pointed out.

"Miss Lovegood, I cannot say whether He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is going to return or not. But I will say this: I absolutely forbid any of you from taking any type of revenge against Mr. Malfoy in this school. I say this as your professor, and for you Luna, as your head of house. You will not take any type of revenge against Draco Malfoy. Because if you do, I will have no choice but to expel you."

"I understand, Professor," Luna said. "I shall not seek any form of revenge against Mr. Malfoy while in this school."

Flitwick nodded, "Very good. There is no reason you cannot return to your dorm tonight. But I think for now you should eat here."

"I am truly not hungry," Luna said.

"Very well."

"We'll get her back to her room, Professor," Ginny said.

"Very well. Good night."

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and also to JR and Miles for additional beta reading. As always the three of them made this a better chapter.


	15. Holiday Break

Chapter 14 Review Responses are on my forums. The link is still gone, so you can find the URL on my profile. Thank you for reading!

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**Chapter Fifteen: Holiday Break**

The Dursleys were not happy at all to see Luna by Harry's side again on the platform.

This time, she did not jump to give them hugs. She simply walked with Harry until he stood before them. "The same terms as last summer," she told them. "If you see him you are not to interfere with him. He will leave early and arrive late. He will not celebrate the holiday with you. His gifts will be to and from those he cares for, not you. Abide by this, and you will continue to live."

Vernon and Petunia nodded nervously.

"I will see you tomorrow, Harry," Luna said. She still looked pale from her own ordeal, but after leaving the hospital she had not talked about it, and neither had Harry or Ginny.

When she was gone Harry looked back at his relatives. "I suppose we should go," he said.

The next day, after he Flooed to the Rookery, Harry had the privilege of seeing something very few had ever seen. Harry did not have a long history with Xenophilius Lovegood, but even if he had, he still would not ever have seen the man as angry as he was when he learned what happened to his daughter at the hands of Malfoy.

"Malfoy's wand of course was tested, but it was unlikely he used it," Adonis reported.

"I am very sorry for the embarrassment this has caused, Father," Luna said. She, Ginny and Harry sat through Adonis's report in silence, since the senior agent got everything right the first time. "However, Professor Flitwick only made me promise not to kill Draco at school. I could easily kill him any time away from school."

"And then I would truly lose you," Xeno said. "You are to kill no one without my explicit approval, or the approval of Adonis. Do you understand?"

Luna bowed her head. "Yes, father."

Xeno sighed. "I am angry for you, pumpkin, not because of you. Still, it could have been worse. At least you were able to come home to me. Now, what have we learned from this?"

"Draco's a right bastard?" Harry asked.

Xeno was not amused and Harry quickly dropped his eyes.

"We have learned that our team security protocols are lacking," Luna said. "This is a direct failure on my part as Control. I shall institute passwords or screenings to ensure that we are who we say we are. Additionally, I will organize emergency rally points and boltholes in the case we are separated during a time of crisis."

Xeno nodded. "Now there is my beautiful Ravenclaw. I know you wish to hurt him, Luna. It is all I can do not to go curse his entire family right now. But in times of war you must choose your timing as carefully as your targets, or else you become the enemy. Until Malfoy senior openly declares for Voldemort, or is actually proven beyond the possibility of a bribe to be a Death Eater, his son is off limits short of self defense. If he dies before then, given what has happened, all operational cover will be blown. People will know either Luna or I had a hand, given our motivation. More importantly, he is under Dumbledore's protection."

"We understand," Harry said.

Xeno walked over until he stood in front of his daughter's friends. "I can see you feel the righteous anger that Luna cannot. She wishes to kill him because he is a threat to be removed. You wish him punished. And I am glad you feel this way for her. Luna has no defense against the _Imperius_ Curse. Some with strong wills can fight it off. We shall test you both this holiday to see if you are capable of this. But Luna cannot. However, there is a simple way to find it she is under the curse. Simply ask her. She is compelled by her relationship to you to tell you the truth. If you ask her if she is under the _Imperius_ Curse, she will answer, even if the caster of the curse has ordered her not to."

"Does the curse hurt?" Ginny asked.

"That's the most insidious part of it," Xeno said. "It actually feels quite pleasant. You may spend the day dreaming of heavenly fields, only to wake up coated in the blood of your own family. It happened more than once during the war. We shall not let it happen to us again."

Harry and Ginny both nodded resolutely.

"Very good. Now, Let us see where you stand on your martial arts training."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

"Where are you going, Ginny?" Ron asked.

It was the second day of the holidays. "I'm just going to go over and talk to Luna, see how she is."

"You spent all day there with her yesterday," Molly said, coming in from the kitchen. "I know you two have become close last summer, but I really think you should spend time with your family."

Ginny sighed. "Mother, other than you, my whole family are boys." She said this as if it should have been sufficient for Molly to understand.

"Then bring her over here."

"She doesn't…Mum, she doesn't want anyone to see her after what happened."

Molly blanched a little. "Oh dear, yes, I suppose that does make sense. What do you do when you go over there?"

"Sometimes nothing at all," Ginny said. "Yesterday we sat in her room and stared at each other. But that's what she needs. Mr. Lovegood thanks me every time I come over. I can ask him to Floo-call you if you want."

"That may not be a bad idea," Molly said. "I just don't want you imposing on them."

"Mum, I'm not imposing. I'm helping."

The Weasley matriarch walked over and placed a hand on Ginny's head. "I know you are, dear. It's a very kind thing you're doing, as well. Very well, then, off you go. And ask Mr. Lovegood if he won't give me a Floo-call later."

"Thanks Mum!"

Ron followed her out the door and waited for a moment. He counted to ten and then stood. "Mum, I'm going to go flying."

"Okay, dear. Lunch will be ready in two hours."

Ron did go to the broom shed and pick out one of the family brooms he used most often. It was an ancient Cleansweep held together by spellotape and spit. Still, it would go faster than a girl on foot.

He climbed on and started drifting down the road after Ginny.

Ron knew where the Rookery was, of course. When he was younger, he and Ginny would often play with Luna. He remembered her as a pretty, smart girl who liked to laugh and sing at the top of her voice. He remembered one time when they were eight when Luna announced that she would marry him and Ginny could marry The Boy Who Lived, and they would have marvelous adventures together.

That was before her Mum died, of course.

He drifted almost with the wind. He could hear Ginny up ahead, singing a Weird Sister's song. He loved his sister, but she could not sing at all. It sounded much like a kneazle being skinned with a butter knife.

The singing though gave him the cue he needed to stay back a safe distance in the trees.

They were already on the Lovegood land, since the Rookery was quite close to the Burrow. Soon enough, he heard Ginny call out a greeting.

He then heard a voice respond that he never expected.

Harry Potter.

Ron dropped the broom a little and drifted into the snow-covered branches of an ancient oak that afforded him a view of the front of the Rookery garden. Sure enough, there was Harry waiving at Ginny with Luna by his side.

Ginny flounced up to the boy and gave him an intimate hug, before turning to hug Luna as well. They looked so…comfortable together, Ron thought. Then came the largest surprise of them all. Xenophilius Lovegood stepped out of the house with…Gilderoy Lockhart? What was…?

It was at this point that Ron's brain started working at a slightly faster pace than normal. Ron was not a stupid boy at all, he was just a boy. And thirteen-year-old boys on average were not exceedingly adept at solving puzzles. However, Ron did have a good mind when he tried to use it, and right now he was trying to fit together a lot of pieces. He remembered the repelling charm that had ruined the last days of Harry's stay at the Burrow. It seemed to start after Lockhart manhandled Harry in Diagon Alley.

Then there was the way the cabin was charmed to make Harry and Ginny tell the truth. Luna was in that cabin alone at first. Then there were the constant detentions during Harry's second year with Lockhart. Every night, even over the holidays, always with Harry and Ginny, and sometimes Luna. More importantly, they never really complained about it. They made excuses instead. Then there was this summer. Granted, the family was travelling, but for Ginny to suddenly get sick and voluntarily stay with the Lovegoods?

He picked all the pieces up and put them together, but still could not recognize the picture he was presented with. Until that is he looked up and saw Harry shout at the top of his voice and punch a thick board of wood held in a metal trellis.

The wood shattered. It literally exploded in a shower of splinters.

"Excellent!" Xeno Lovegood called out. "You really did have a breakthrough. Tell me, what did it feel like?"

Harry swayed a little, as if exhausted. "It felt like I was casting a spell, only without a wand or an incantation. The magic came up from my stomach and into my arm just like normal, but instead of going out in a spell it surrounded my fist."

"And that is exactly what _Shénaí zhí lù auán_ is! It is the conscious harnessing of magic to increase physical power. You have just done something that only twenty people outside the monks of Shangri-La can do."

"And it only took all summer and the first three months of school to do it," Harry said.

"Which is half the time it takes students with normal power levels," Xeno assured him. "Ginevra, are you ready to try?"

"Is Luna going to try?" Harry asked again.

"Not yet," Luna said. "I can master the moves, but I won't reach your current power level until after my maturity."

"Oh," Harry said. "But Ginny can?"

"If not now, soon," Xeno said. "Still, Ginevra, we shall never know unless you try."

Ron watched with baited breath as they set up another board. She spread her legs in an uncomfortable but firm position in the snowy ground, screamed, and punched. Her hand bounced off the unbroken board. She shook her fist in pain, but then backed up on step, screamed again, and lashed out with her right foot almost faster than Ron could follow.

The board snapped in two.

"Well, I'm not there yet," Ginny said. "But my side kick has improved."

"Tremendously," Lockhart said.

"I think it is time for a morning snack," Xeno said. "Perhaps young Mr. Weasley would like to join us?"

Harry, Ginny and Luna all turned to look around. Ron was so surprised he momentarily lost control of the broom, which surged forward and swept him off the handle with a low-hanging limb.

With a grunt and a shower of snow, Ron flipped backward off the broom and fell the eight feet to the bank of snow at the foot of the tree. He started to pick himself up when Harry arrived, "Shouldn't have done that, mate."

Ginny stood by Harry's side with a horrified expression. "Ron, what were you thinking?"

"I wanted to know what my little sister was doing!" Ron said.

Ginny, though, turned back to Mr. Lovegood. "Sir, please don't hurt him! He didn't mean any harm; he just wanted to protect me. And why didn't the wards stop him?"

Xeno sighed. "Luna's mother keyed you all in as children, and I…suppose I neglected to change that. Nonetheless, Ginevra, he has seen something he should not have seen. At the very least, he will need to be obliviated."

"He will just come again," Luna said absently. She walked toward them calmly. "I know that Hermione is aware that we are more than we seem. She does not know everything. However, I have known Ronald for many years. He won't mean to give up the secret, but sadly he will eventually. Either by trickery, or because of spite and jealousy. He cannot help it."

"Give up what?" Ron yelled, truly frightened now. "All I saw was Harry break a board. I don't know anything.'

Harry stared right at Ron. "Sir, Ron is my best friend. He's not perfect, but then I'm not either. I'd much rather have him with us than obliviated."

"The other alternative is to kill him," Luna said. "We could make it look like a flying accident."

"Luna!" Ginny said. "You will not _ever_ kill my brother."

Luna dropped her eyes. "Okay."

"You're all barmy," Ron said as he tried scrambling to his feet, only to have Lockhart grab his shoulders.

"Oh, we're worse than that, Mr. Weasley," the former professor said. He did not speak at all like he did when he taught at Hogwartshe seemed much more serious now. "The question is what to do with you? If word gets out of what we are doing, lives could be at risk."

"The whole Ministry could be at risk," Mr. Lovegood said.

Ron was seriously considering throwing up.

"On the other hand," Luna said, "he and Hermione could be very useful in assisting us. They could cover for us while in school or at home, and Hermione is a very promising researcher."

Xeno seemed to be considering things. "You mentioned he has difficulty with jealousy?"

"Sadly, yes," Luna said.

Xeno stepped to right in front of Ron. "Mr. Weasley, there is a very good chance that Harry will be with your sister. He may be with my daughter. Frankly he may be with them both."

Ron's eyes flicked to Harry who was blushing brilliantly.

"But he will do so with my blessing and thanks regardless. He, Miss Weasley, and my daughter are taking part in a unique training program. While we have trained pairs together, we've never started them so young. But then again, we've never had a potential agent of the Department of Mysteries with a death mark placed on him by a Dark Lord before either. So this is new ground for all of us. But you should know this—Voldemort will return. There will be a resumption of war, and whether he chooses to be or not, Harry will be in the middle of it. What we do here is to train him and give him the support he will need to survive it. What he does not need is a friend who is jealous of him being around your sister, or being around my daughter."

Ron swallowed in a dry throat. "Is this about what happened first year?"

"In part," Xeno allowed.

"Could you…could you teach me to fight like that? Like Harry?"

"No," Xeno said without hesitation. "What Harry is learning is a fighting art that requires an extreme level of both power and control. Not even he will be remotely competent at it for another few years. Even Luna will have difficulty with this."

"But there are other things we could teach you," Lockhart said.

Ron looked from face to face. "Harry's my best mate," he said. "I…I don't want to do anything to hurt him."

"An unbreakable vow?" Lockhart suggested.

"For Hermione as well," Luna suggested. "Their relationship is already damaged because he believes her kneazle ate his rat."

"A foolish belief," Lockhart said. "But understandable. It's not unheard of."

"The Legilimency going on at Hogwarts is of great concern, though."

"Well, the unbreakable vow will help with that," Lockhart said. "And a simple obscuring charm should do the rest. It worked against Snape all of last year."

Xeno seemed to consider that for a moment. "Ronald Weasley, I am Xenophilius Lovegood, Head Unspeakable of the Department of Mysteries. You have come into possession of information that could be potentially damaging to the security of Magical Britain. It is only the love of your friends that keeps me from Obliviating or even killing you where you stand. However, because of your friendship, I am willing to give you a chance to prove your loyalty. Will you make the Unbreakable Vow to never disclose what you have learned, and what you will learn, about the Department of Mysteries and all those persons either directly under its employ or under its direction?"

"I don't know how to make the Unbreakable Vow, but yeah, I will."

"Adonis?" Xeno said.

Ron watched as Lockhart stepped to his side. "Extend your hand. Zeus, yours as well."

The old wizard and young boy shook hands. "Ron, by the power of your magic and your very life, do you hereby swear to uphold all the terms given you by Xenophilius?"

Ron gulped but then looked at Harry, who nodded back with a smile. "I do."

Lockhart flicked his wand and with a flash of light on their hands, sealed the vow. "It is done."

"This is important, Ron," Xeno said. "You cannot speak of this. If you do, your own magic will prevent you. If you are compelled, it will force your death before you can reveal it."

"I…I understand, but I just don't understand why."

"It is because Harry here is going to be the next Dumbledore, and both Voldemort and Dumbledore himself are doing everything they can to prevent that from happening.

"Oh."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Two days after Christmas, Remus climbed out of the secret passage into the shrieking shack and sighed. Things were so much better with the Wolfsbane potion, but the change was still a painful and humiliating process.

Still, he could not avoid it, and the moonrise was fast approaching. He could feel it in his blood. So he undid his shirt and folded it, before placing it on the old bookshelf he had dusted when he first returned to Hogwarts. In fact, he'd cleaned this room up a great deal over the years.

Next came his under shirt, then his shoes, socks, slacks and underwear. He stood nude in the middle of the room. He checked his Muggle watch one last time before placing it with his clothes. His wand he stored in one of his shoes.

He downed the Wolfsbane potion and had to stifle an urge to vomit. Though he wanted to believe that Snape made the potion horrible tasting on purpose, he knew that even the original potion that Damocles invented was foul as well. Any attempt to sweeten or alter the taste ruined its effects.

The fact he had to take it every day this week prior to the full moon did not in any way inure him to the taste.

But the effects were unquestionable. He felt a calm descend on him despite the aching in his joints and the crawling sensation all over his skin. The transformation was beginning.

He got down on his hands and knees and took a deep breath. The transformation was terribly painful, but again nothing could be done without weakening the potion. And truth was that after a life of suffering, Remus was accustomed to the pain.

His joints exploded as they shifted to his werewolf form. His skin burned as fur sprouted forth. His scream turned into a howl as his jaw broke and lengthened. It took sixty two seconds of agony, but when it was done a wolf rested on the floor, rather than the terrifying monster that Lupin would otherwise have been. For that was the true power of the potion. It shifted the lycanthropy into a modified Animagus transformation.

Lupin became a true wolf with full use of his human faculties.

It was those canine faculties that made him realize he was not alone. Another scent was in the house—a scent hauntingly familiar. He looked up whining a little as a huge but obviously hungry black dog padded into the room

It moved until it was directly in front of the still prostate wolf and bent down until their noses touched. The grim barked once, and then padded to a spot on the floor nearby. He settled down, and the two creatures stared at each in silence as the night wore on.

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and also to JR and Miles for additional beta reading. As always the three of them made this a better chapter.


	16. A Growing Circle of Friends

**Chapter Sixteen: A Growing Circle of Friends**

The grim was gone when Remus awoke. He slammed a fist onto the floor in frustration, and then slowly picked himself up. Every single joint hurt and his skin itched like mad, but at least it was over for another month.

Remus was a pragmatic man. His life had left him little choice to be otherwise. He knew there was nothing to be done about it, so he stumbled to the shelf with his clothes and started to dress. As he removed his wand and watch from his shoes, a slip of parchment fell out as well.

On it were written four words. _First day of school. Midnight_.

Remus sighed in relief. "Thank Merlin," he whispered.

He made his way back to the castle through his secret passage and to his rooms to lie down. He was exhausted and would likely sleep through the day.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Hermione popped out of the Floo with the echo of her parent's farewells behind her. She immediately found herself enveloped in the crushing double mounds of matronly flesh that was Molly Weasley.

"Hermione, dear, so glad you could join us!"

"Hank ouu," Hermione managed to say.

Finally she was released to breathe, and was met almost immediately by Ginny. "Come on," the younger girl said, taking Hermione's hand.

Hermione dropped her school trunk and followed a little bewildered. "Where are Ron and the others?"

"Out playing Quidditch. Harry arrived yesterday so he could travel back with us. We don't have a lot of time."

"What do you mean?"

"Tell you in a minute." The two girls went to Ginny's room, which along with the master suite was the only bedroom on the ground floor. It was the traditional room for the youngest in the house since it was traditionally the nursery. As new children were born, the older ones were forced to move up, sometimes into additions which Arthur had to build and spell together himself. Hence the rather unsteady look of the house.

Ginny threw Hermione onto her bed before closing the door. Hermione then watched with a slack jaw as the second-year girl proceeded to use a variety of OWL- and even NEWT level warding spells. "Ginny, what is going on?"

Ginny turned to Hermione and grinned. "Something happened this holiday. Ron followed me to Luna's and discovered what we were doing. I was honestly afraid they would obliviate or even hurt him, but Harry and Luna convinced them to let him in with an unbreakable vow."

"Who is 'they'?"

"Can't tell you yet. But I can, if you agree to the vow."

"Ginny, I've read about those. Unbreakable vows can be very dangerous, and it's not even legal for a minor to make one."

"Except under extenuating circumstances involving national security," Ginny said.

"Of course," Hermione said, quickly reasoning it out. "Will the vow force me to betray my parents or anyone I love?"

"It's a vow of silence, not action," Ginny assured her.

"And if I make the vow?"

"You get to know everything, and you can even help us and take some lessons too."

"One last question," Hermione said. "Why did your mother try to kill me with her bosom?"

Ginny giggled and bounced a little. The movement made her red ponytail bob and made her look every part of the young girl she was. "Percy told her you kissed Ron to shut him up. She thought it was the smartest thing she has ever heard of and used it twice to win arguments with Dad. I think she really likes you now."

"Oh bother," Hermione said with a flushed face. "Okay, enough of that, what do I have to do?"

Ginny removed a _Witch's Weekly_ edition. "Touch this."

"Ginny, you can't use…"

"My wand's trace was removed, _Portus_."

The two witches disappeared in a swirl of magic, only to appear a second later in the living room of the Rookery. Hermione took a deep breath to recover from the wild ride. "So that was a portkey," she said. "So strange,"

"Hello, Ms. Granger."

Hermione turned around to see Gilderoy Lockhart's beaming smile. She almost immediately jumped in joy. "I knew you weren't just a fraud! I knew it!"

"She has a crush," Ginny explained.

Hermione burned crimson, stopped jumping, and punched Ginny's arm. "Shush, you!"

"My actual name is Adonis," Lockhart said. "Not by choice, I assure you. My wife chose it for me many years ago, even before we were married. But for now, I understand you are willing to make the unbreakable vow?"

"If it means helping Harry, then yes."

Adonis gave a satisfied nod, "Very well. I will be your binder. Your Oath will be made to the Head Unspeakable of the Department of Mysteries."

Hermione stiffened when Luna's father stepped into the room. "That explains so much," was the first thing she said.

"To the sharp enough mind, I suppose it does," Xeno said. "Let us get the formalities done first."

She took his hand and made the oath, while Adonis bound it. She felt her magic tingle as he did so. "I can't believe I did that," she admitted.

"There is a reason you were sorted to Gryffindor," Xeno said.

"Sir, before we begin, can I ask a question I posed to Luna last year?"

He nodded, "Why Ginny, and not you?"

Hermione glanced back at Ginny with an apologetic smile. "I know it seems selfish, but…I really do love Harry."

"And you could have made him happy, up until he died," Xeno said. "At sixteen, perhaps seventeen years of age."

Hermione sucked in a breath. "What do you mean?"

"The Department of Mysteries has a unique charter. Every magical nation beyond a certain population threshold has a similar department. Our job is to study the mystery of magic itself. Naturally, this extends to the study of magic users. Mr. Potter and Ms. Weasley were known to us almost from their birth. Even if Harry's parents were not killed, we would have recruited him because he is a sport."

"A what?"

"In Muggle terms, Harry is the magical equivalent of a nuclear weapon," Adonis said. "His magical potential is exponentially greater than the next most powerful witch or wizard alive. There are perhaps ten sports in the entire world. It is a surprising coincidence that three of them live here in the British Isles."

"Three …Voldemort and Dumbledore?"

"Correct," Xeno said. "And should he make it to his magical maturity, Harry Potter. But the truth about potential is that it has not happened yet. Magical power can be squandered by an abusive home or malnutrition. The Miltventnor scale shows potential only, not true power."

"True power is measured by the Hanson Index."

"That is correct. And very few people volunteer to take the Hanson Test because it is made public record and can change with age. But back to your inquiry—we are the reason why the Sorting Hat is still used. The Hat transmits its findings to the Department of Mysteries regarding each student's personality index. The index does not measure your thoughts so much as it captures a frame of mind. The index showed that while you were brave and loyal, you were also a Type A personality and found it extremely difficult to go against authority figures and rules. Your urge to listen to Dumbledore would eventually get Harry killed."

Hermione felt like she was punched in the gut. "Is Dumbledore really so evil?"

Adonis snorted. Xeno, though, shook his head, "Not at all. He is an avowed and legitimate light wizard. He also feels that, because of his own magical power, he is the only possible leader in the fight against Voldemort. Everyone around him is merely a tool to ensure Voldemort's defeat ... Including Harry. Light can cause just as much harm as the dark, Miss Granger."

"Harry said Dumbledore wanted him to die fighting Voldemort," Hermione said.

"He does. That would destroy one of Voldemort's soul anchors. If the others are destroyed, Voldemort becomes mortal, and killing him becomes possible. Dumbledore believes he is the only one with sufficient power to accomplish this. He does not want Harry to reach his potential because he believes that no teenager could ever be a threat to Voldemort, but in the event he did destroy Voldemort, the Dark Lord would just return because of the anchor in Harry himself."

"And what do you believe?"

"We completely agree that a lone teenage boy cannot defeat Voldemort. That is why we are making Harry part of a cohesive team that _will_ be a threat to Voldemort. And though you will never be a field agent, I agree with Ginevra and Luna that you have the potential to be an asset to both the team and to the Department of Mysteries when you are of age. So, welcome aboard, Miss Granger."

"Thank you, sir."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Fortunately there were no interruptions on their return trip to Hogwarts. Harry, Ginny, Luna, Ron and Hermione sat together in the same cabin. Neville sat in the next cabin with Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan. Luna's repelling wards kept the three boys from even trying to enter. It also managed to keep Draco Malfoy and his goons away, which was just as well.

For the longest time, Hermione and Ron didn't quite know what to say. The knowledge they now possessed changed their entire outlook not just on the first war against Voldemort, but on how the world was hurtling toward a second. It was sobering. Even more sobering was the knowledge that Harry and Ginny were slated to play a part in that war.

"So where do you train?" Hermione finally asked almost an hour into the trip.

"The Shrieking Shack," Harry said.

"That place is supposed to be the most haunted place in the whole United Kingdom," Ron said.

"Actually, Hogwarts is the most haunted place in the Isles, and we live there," Hermione pointed out.

"My father, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew refurbished the shack so Remus Lupin could go through his monthly transformations in comfort, with friends."

Ron nodded still stunned to find their best DADA professor was also a werewolf. "What are you learning right now?"

"Mostly theory," Ginny said. "Learning how to feel and control our magic. Not so much spells, though we're learning that too. Mainly its martial arts, meditation and Occlumency training. Adonis says we're training to set up a good foundation for when we come into our adult magic."

"Wild," Ron said. "So, are you going to be like a super wizard or something?"

"I don't think so," Harry said. "I'll supposedly come into my power when I'm fourteen or fifteen. That just means my magical core will be larger. But I'll still be fourteen or fifteen. Even the most skilled fifteen-year-old fighter is going to have trouble against a skilled twenty-five year old fighter or a skilled thirty year old fighter. They just want to give me the tools I'll need as an adult now."

"That's…surprisingly smart," Hermione admitted. "I wonder why Hogwarts doesn't do something like that."

"Hogwarts's charter does not involve producing active combat-ready field agents," Luna said. "Also, Professor Dumbledore is possessed by Wrackspurts. This is evidenced through his need to consume lemon drops."

"Very true," Harry said with a perfectly straight face.

Finally they reached Hogsmeade and climbed onto the carriage for the ride back to the castle. The welcome feast was as lavish as always. However, as much as Harry and Ginny tried to forget about the events that ended the first term, the eyes and the whispering upon Luna's entry gave them an unavoidable reminder.

"Do you wish to sit with us?" Ginny asked.

Luna shook her head. "The opinions of others have never meant much to me. Except for yours."

"We think you're brilliant," Harry said.

"Then I shall be fine. Perhaps I will sit with you tomorrow at breakfast." With that she walked across the hall as if she did not have a concern in the world, and joined her housemates. Harry and Ginny watched her for a moment before they sat at their table with Ron and Hermione.

"So, she really doesn't care, does she?" Ron asked.

"She does, but not for the reasons you think," Harry said.

"She cares that someone in this castle is a threat to all of us," Ginny said. "And that she can't kill him. But she doesn't care what anyone thinks about her. That much is true."

At the Ravenclaw table, Luna's housemates cast surreptitious glances at her while they ate. One of her roommates, Morgana Havenot, giggled a little. "So, Luna, you have a thing for Harry, do you? I'll admit, he's cute enough ... I wonder if I should have a go at him too. Show him what a real woman can do."

Beside her, Orla Quircke snorted. "When you find one, Morgana, let me know."

That caused some of the other second years to laugh. Luna, however, merely stared at the girl in disconcerting silence. The laughter around the table slowly passed. Morgana finally looked away.

Without saying a word, Luna went back to her dinner. Meanwhile, across the room, Professor Lupin stepped down from the staff table and left a note with Harry as he walked out of the Great Hall.

Harry opened the slip of parchment, _Shrieking shack, midnight._ As soon as he finished reading it, the parchment disappeared in a flash of fire. He looked next to him at Ginny, who nodded. Hermione and Ron looked on from across the table but said nothing.

That night, Ginny snuck down the stairs to find Harry waiting for her in the common room with his cloak. "Are you ready?" she whispered. They were alone in the room, save for the banked and smoldering fire.

Harry nodded and held out the cloak. Ginny stepped to his side, wrapping an arm around his waist. Harry threw the cloak over them, taking one side himself while Ginny took the other. Though she would never tell him openly, Ginny loved the cloak not because it hid them, but because it gave her the perfect excuse to hold him, and for him to hold her.

The halls of the castle seemed to be empty. They approached their agreed rendezvous point to find Luna waiting for them. "Are you under an Imperius curse?" Ginny asked.

"I am not."

"Who is your father?" Harry asked.

"Zeus. Where did you spend your summer?"

"The Rookery."

Harry lifted the cloak and Luna stepped to his other side, and in moments was also covered. They stepped behind the wizarding painting into the secret passage that would lead them to The Whomping Willow and from there to the Shrieking Shack.

"Did your classmates give you any trouble?" Harry asked.

"I spoke with them this evening when they once again attempted to prank me. I have not had to do that since the beginning of school last term. They understand that the event has not changed the status quo. I also pointed out that if Draco could make me strip and cut myself, then he could do much worse to them. I encouraged them to move in groups. This actually made them less hostile toward me."

"That's good," Harry said, worried as always about his strange friend. He did not just worry about her safety, but he also worried about what she would do to those around her. There was no question in his mind that Luna was dangerous, both to herself and all those around her. And yet he did not want to think about what school would be like without her.

They arrived at the vicious Whomping Willow tree. It was Luna who danced forward like a sprite to depress the secret knob. The tree went still, and the three friends disappeared into the passage under the tree.

They emerged at the ground floor and quickly made their way up the creaking steps. They removed the cloak since with the creaking floorboards, using it seemed to be a moot issue, and emerged on the first floor to find two men waiting for them.

The first man of course was Professor Lupin. The second man appeared to be a starved exile from a World War II concentration camp. His hair was long, black and filthy; his skin was almost black with dirt and filth—the smell of him was overpowering. He was sitting on the floor desperately eating bread and chicken.

Both food items dropped when he saw the children step into the room. He rose to his knees for a moment, before sinking back onto his haunches. "Harry!" he whispered. "Remus, he looks just like…"

"James, yes, I know," Remus said, "But with Lily's eyes."

"And who is this?" Black said. His voice was hoarse and strained. "She could almost be Lily in first year."

"I'm Ginny Weasley, and I'm in second year."

Black nodded, absorbing the information. "And you must be Cynthia's daughter. You look heavenly, just like she did."

"Sadly, you look quit ill-used," Luna said. "Do you require medical care?"

"No charms to cure starvation and torture," Black grunted. "It's just enough to see you, Harry. I swear to you, I swear on my life, I would never betray your father. I would have died for him before that."

"I know," Harry said. He stepped forward and stood before Black, who even on his knees was almost as tall as the young boy. Hesitantly, he leaned forward to embrace his godfather.

The gesture was too much for Black to endure, and he pulled Harry down to his own knees while crying. "Oh Merlin, it's so good to see you, Pup!" he sobbed. "It's so good to see you! I never thought I would."

A sixth person stepped into the room. "How very touching," Severus Snape said with a sneer. He had his wand out. "I suspected you would help your old friend, Lupin. But to pull three students into his madness as well? I shan't just have you fired, Lupin, I shall see you in Azkaban for endangering children and harboring a fugitive."

"Oh shut it, you fool!" Black snarled. "It wasn't me, it was Peter!"

"A likely story, Black," Snape said, still with that permanent sneer on his face, "Just like it wasn't you who tried to lure me to my death. You are a killer, Black, plain and simple."

"Professor Snape," Harry said, "Peter Pettigrew is alive. We can prove it."

"Don't bother, Harry," Luna said. "He is controlled by his hatred and will not listen to you. I'm afraid we will have to kill him."

Snape's eyes widened a little at the calm pronouncement. "If I needed any further proof of your insanity girl, I would have it now. _Stupefy!_"

Luna very casually cart-wheeled away from the stunning spell while Harry and Ginny darted to the other side; Black, who had no wand, tried to find a place to hide while Remus launched his own stunner at Snape.

Snape blocked the spell with a shield. "Well, let us see just how good the DADA professor is shall we?"

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and also to JR and Miles for additional beta reading. As always the three of them made this a better chapter.


	17. Sevvy's Revenge

**Author's Note**: Some of my betas have already pointed out that certain scenes of this chapter were influenced more by the movies than the books. Mea Culpa.

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**Chapter Seventeen: Sevvy's Revenge**

Harry absolutely hated to admit it, but Snape was good. Too good...

He and Remus started duelling outright with a speed and ferocity Harry had not seen since Adonis took on the Basilisk last year. Remus obviously knew his magic, but the Potions master moved with a fluid grace and responded with startling power.

"Remus isn't going to win," Luna said when she managed to circle the room and rejoin them.

"What do we do?" Harry asked.

Luna shrugged. "You know the shielding charm, Ginny and I can shoot stunners. We might even the odds."

"On three?"

The girls nodded, and on three the students jumped into the floor. "_Protego!"_ Harry yelled, while Luna and Ginny both started firing stunners.

Snape easily deflected or blocked the new spells, but having to defend against three enemies seemed to level the playing field, at least for a moment.

A flash of purple light struck a broken old piano in the corner of the room. The instrument suddenly jumped up and slammed its lid loudly as it stomped toward the three children. This forced Luna and Ginny to shoot banishing hexes at it, while Snape spun away from Lupin and launched an overpowered _Expelliarmus_ at Harry.

Harry dodged the spell and let his shield drop, only to be caught by Snape's silent follow-up spell. The red stunner struck Harry head on and sent the boy skidding across the floor. "Harry!" Ginny cried, shortly before another stunner caught her.

Luna, knowing she was outclassed by the experienced dueller, did not bother with her wand. She removed her throwing knives just as Remus began a desperate assault to save his students. Snape never saw the knife that bore into his shoulder. Enraged, he turned to Luna and fired a powerful banishing charm that sent the girl flying through a wall of the shack.

"Severus, stop this!" Remus called.

"I'll stop when Black is kissed!" Snape screamed back. He tore the knife from his shoulder and threw it to the floor. He never saw Black take Harry's wand, stand and shout, _"Bombarda!"_

The blasting hex caught Snape in his chest and sent the man flying through the wall opposite of where he sent Luna. Black then turned back to Harry and Ginny. "_Ennervate!_" Both children blinked.

Harry took back his wand. "We need to hurry," he said. "Where's Luna?"

"Outside, come on!" Remus said. The werewolf was panting and slick with sweat and with exhaustion. Even his clothes looked torn and burned from the duel. The four of them ran down the rickety stairs until they found Luna lying in the snow. Her mouth was coated in blood and she lay perfectly still.

"No!" Harry screamed. He jumped to her side. "Luna?"

She did not open her eyes. Lupin knelt down beside her. "She's badly injured," he said. "We need to get her to the Hospital Wing."

With the snow and the bitter cold of a January evening, they did not notice the approaching storm until it was too late. "What is that?" Ginny asked weakly.

Remus paled, while beside him Black began to keen softly.

The black sky above seemed to be writhing. One of the shadows reached down, and only then did they all understand. The Dementors, attracted by the duel, were coming. Remus held up his wand and said, "_Expecto Patronum!"_

A silver wolf bound out of his wand and then seemed to melt into a dome-shaped shield, but more and more shadows began pressing down. Harry looked up and added his own Patronus, strengthening the dome, but it was still not enough.

"Sirius!" Remus cried. "Take Luna and the kids to the secret passage. Get them to the Hospital Wing, and then meet me back at the Hogshead."

"Remus, you can't hold them all back by yourself."

"You can't hold them back at all, you halfwit! Go!"

Black gently lifted Luna from the snow. She coughed as he lifted her, sending a spray of blood as she did so. The escaped prisoner stumbled to his feet with Ginny by his side.

"Harry, go," Remus said.

"I won't leave you," Harry said.

"I am ordering you to go, Harry," Remus said. "For all of us: You have to go."

Harry visibly struggled with the order before, growling, he spun away from his father's friend. It was not soon enough.

The darkness broke through, shattering the Patronus charms as hundreds of dementors swarmed down on all of them. Harry spun and cried out his Patronus, but this time could only summon a weak mist that did not slow the demons down.

Sirius screamed as he collapsed. Even in his agony, he rolled away from Luna to keep from crushing her, while Ginny curled into a fetal ball around her friend. Harry tried again, and this time wasn't even able to summon a mist.

It was all falling apart. "No!" he screamed in frustration, even as a Dementor descended on him. He had one brief vision of brilliant white light, and a familiar voice crying, _"Expecto Patronum_" before his dying mother's screams pulled him into darkness.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Harry woke with a start. He sat up, only to find himself strapped down on the bed without his glasses. He turned his head and saw Ginny beside him, also strapped down. On the other side lay a blurry blonde shape he figured was Luna. From what he could see she was not strapped down. The blood was gone from her face, but she lay unnaturally still and was more pale even than normal.

He lifted his head as much as the straps would allow and saw Remus across from him, also strapped down.

"What…" he began.

"You are being held pending an investigation," a sneering voice said.

Harry saw a blurry image of a black figure, but the voice was easily recognizable. "Professor, please don't do this. He's innocent. We can prove it."

"I don't care," Snape said with dripping delight. "You broke the law, Potter. You aided and abetted a known felon and an escaped prisoner. You and your friends will never set foot in this castle again. Lupin will likely take Black's old cell."

"Where is Sirius?"

"He is ten minutes away from receiving the kiss, boy. And if I may say, it is many years overdue."

"How can you do this?" Harry said. "He's innocent. Peter Pettigrew is alive. I've seen him myself!"

"It doesn't matter," Snape said. "Some dogs simply need to be put down."

With that, the Professor turned to walk away, only to run directly into a bright red light. Harry couldn't see details, but he did see Snape keel over and fall to the floor with a dull thud. A moment later, a pair of female hands put his glasses on.

"Hermione?" Harry said. "Merlin it's good to see you!"

"You too, Harry. Are you hurt?"

"No. What'd you do to the professor?"

"That was me, I'm afraid," a familiar voice said.

Harry blinked and found himself staring at Harry Potter. "What…Adonis?"

"Polyjuice is a wonderful thing," the other Harry agreed. "And there seems to be a lot of it around here. We don't have much time. I've obliviated Snape. I'd implant a false memory, but unfortunately both he and Dumbledore are good enough to pick it apart, so it's better just to destroy the memories than to get too clever. We don't have much time, though."

He waved his wand and undid the straps on Harry's bed before taking his place. He handed Harry his invisibility cloak. "I've just dosed myself," he said. "So I have an hour or so before I revert. And, do not take this inappropriately, but you must tie me up, please."

Harry did so. "I still don't know what's going on."

"Miss Granger?"

Hermione pulled something out of her shirt. "Harry, you know I've been taking all the subjects for third year, right?"

"Yeah. I figured the staff adjusted the timetable for you."

"No, they gave me this. It's a time turner, Harry. I can go backward almost a full day if I have to."

Harry's eyes widened. "You mean time travel?"

"Of course, Harry," Adonis said lightly. "This is Hogwarts. Why adjust a class schedule when you can play with the very fabric of reality. I think about one turn should be sufficient, Miss Granger," he added.

Harry turned to him. "Did you get her that?"

"For once, no, the time turners have been given to promising students before. The Department of Mysteries then studies the students to track any long term effects. The students are unwitting subjects in a long-term research project."

Hermione blinked. "I didn't know that. Anyway, we're going to go save your Godfather, Harry."

"What about Ginny and Luna?" Harry asked.

"Everyone directly involved must be accounted for," Adonis said. "Harry, you must hurry. Go now."

Hermione looped the long chain around them both and made a single turn to the chain. Harry watched as time stopped and then seemed to go backward. Suddenly they snapped back into place in the center of an empty Hospital Ward.

"Put the cloak on and let's go!" Hermione hissed.

He threw the cloak over the two of them and they quickly retreated into the halls of the school. They reached the secret entrance and started down the tunnel. "So what's been happening?"

Hermione wiped her nose. "Oh Harry, it's been awful. They have your godfather locked in the Divination Tower now. Minister Fudge is already here with an army of Aurors. Professor Snape hasn't testified yet, but I heard him and Professor Dumbledore arguing about you. He's going to testify that you, Ginny, Luna and Professor Lupin were all trying to help Black escape, and he was going to testify that it was actually Luna who attacked him last term. Something about a knife."

"We were trying to help him," Harry muttered.

"But if Snape testifies to that, you'd all have your wands snapped and be expelled. Now with a memory charm you might escape being expelled, but there's nothing we can do about Black at the moment."

"At the moment?"

"In about ten minutes you're all going to be attacked by the dementors, Harry. Adonis seemed to think you could do something about it, but I'm scared."

"I am too," Harry admitted as they continued rushing through the passage. They came to the Whomping Willow and ducked into the second underground passage. They could hear the sounds of fighting ahead, punctuated by an explosion. That must have been when Black sent Snape flying through the wall.

By the time they made it onto the ground floor, the Dementors had already attacked. Inside the relative shelter of the shack, Hermione clung to Harry. "Oh God, Harry, look at you!"

Harry looked, shocked to see the fight from such a different perspective. Black was already on the ground with the demons hovering about his head, tasting him. Ginny was unconscious, curled protectively around Luna's head. Harry himself was sprawled spread-eagled in the snow, while Remus was curled up in a trembling ball. The dementors were tasting all of them, as if playing with their food.

"Harry, what do we do?"

The other Harry's eyes were still partially open. And then the memory struck, of a voice crying out _"Expecto Patronum_" and a brilliant flash of light.

"I can do it," Harry whispered.

"What?"

Harry stepped forward with his wand, and felt his magic swirling through his body just like Adonis had taught. He summoned that magic now, and focused it through the memory of Ginny right after she spoke with the girls on the Quidditch team. Of how she rushed down the stairs, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him.

He focused on the happy shock of her lips on his, of her young body pressing against his in a moment of happiness. "_Expecto Patronum!" _he screamed.

A giant silver fox burst from the tip of his wand and seemed to explode into a dome of silver light. The light swept past the bodies of his friends and pushed the dementors away. The darkness gathered overhead in a cyclone of living shadows that struck down to attack the shield of silver light, only to break apart.

The dementors turned away from the brilliant light and fled into the darkness. When it was done, Harry's legs trembled as his magic drained away. He fell to the floor with Hermione holding him. "Harry! How did you do that?"

"I knew I could," he said. "I did it before, the first time. It was me."

"Harry!"

Outside the house, Aurors appeared by the dozen. Snape emerged from around the house, holding his side gingerly while his burned and blasted robes revealed an angrily burned but skinny chest. "Aurors!" he cried. "That is the convict Sirius Black and those attempting to aid his escape! All of them must be taken into custody and returned to the castle!"

Hermione grabbed Harry's cloak and threw it over the two of them. "Can you walk?"

Harry nodded drunkenly, "Yeah."

"Then come on."

The two stumbled back to the secret passage and made their way back to the willow. As they emerged, they could see the Aurors walking back to the castle with everyone bound and unconscious behind them. "We have to wait a few minutes," Hermione said.

"How are we going to get Sirius out?"

"Adonis suggested stealing a school broom."

Harry grinned, "A Slytherin broom."

"Definitely,"

As they waited at the base of the stilled willow, Harry put a hand around Hermione's waist and pulled her closer. "Thank you for doing this, Hermione. I'm so glad you're a part of all this."

"I'm not," Hermione said, trembling a little. "Look, Harry, I'm beginning to understand what Adonis meant. I'm not having fun. I'm terrified. I've never been so scared in my life, and when Adonis came I almost said no."

"But you didn't."

"Because of you," Hermione said.

Harry gently kissed her forehead. "Thank you."

She sighed and leaned against him. "I envy Ginny."

Harry fought against the blush. "What about Ron?"

"We're thirteen. We have time to figure things out. But you and Ginny—I see you guys together and it just seems like you're made for each other."

"Well, the Department of Mysteries certainly thinks so."

Hermione chuckled. "So, do you love her?"

"I don't know. But like you said I'm only thirteen—I have plenty of time to figure that out."

"Prat," The both fell silent as they saw a light atop the divination tower.

"That's our cue," she said.

The two ran as fast as they could toward the Quidditch pitch. The broom closets were built next to the showers along the outside wall of the castle, both being late additions to the structure. Hermione removed her wand to open the door, but Harry stopped her. "They can trace the spell," he said. "You can't be involved."

"Then how?"

Harry stared down at the locked door and took a long, deep breath. He put his feet shoulder length apart, bent at the knees. He felt his magic, just as he did at the shack. He was tired from the exertions of the evening, but still the magic came when summoned. He did not dare scream, so instead he made a loud grunt as he summoned his magic into his fist and punched the door just beside the lock.

The wood shattered sufficiently that the portion of the door held by the lock broke free entirely. The rest of the door swung inward.

"That is impressive," Hermione whispered.

"And untraceable," Harry said.

"When did you get so smart?"

"When I found out my life was on the line," Harry said. "And yours too." They ran in and grabbed one of the new Nimbus brooms Lucius Malfoy bought the Slytherins last year to get Draco onto the team.

"Harry, I really hate flying," Hermione said.

He grinned back at her. "I know. Go back to the passage, Hermione. Go back to the dorm. You've already done enough."

"Harry, I am not…."

Harry employed her own technique against her, silencing her with a kiss. She blinked and then scowled, "Harry why did that feel like I was kissing my brother?"

He grinned back, "Because if I could pick a sister from anyone in the world, it would be you, Hermione. Now, please go back. I don't think I could live with myself it you got in trouble because of me."

"Okay," she agreed. "Please be careful."

"I will."

He waited until she was gone before wrapping himself in the cloak and shooting up to the Divination Tower.

When he arrived he found that someone had transformed the telescope closet into a cell, complete with iron bars. Within the tiny space, Sirius Black hunkered on the floor staring into space with an empty expression.

"What were you eating when I first saw you?" Harry said from under the cloak.

Sirius blinked and grinned as he crawled on all fours to the door. "Harry! I was eating…I was…oh damn! Chicken! And bread. Best damned bread I'd ever had."

Harry removed the cloak. "You have it then," Black said with a satisfied glance at the cloak. "Was afraid Dumbledore wouldn't give it back to you."

"Listen, Sirius, we don't have a lot of time," Harry said. "You can't trust Dumbledore. He knew you weren't the secret keeper. He locked you up anyway so that he could get a hold of me and send me to the Dursleys."

"Lily's sister?" Black gaped. "Why in Merlin's name would he do that? The woman is atrocious."

"To keep me from reaching my full potential," Harry said. "Sirius, Mum and Dad were Unspeakables."

"_What_?"

"They were trained together as a team, just like Ginny and I are training now. I can't send you to my Control because that might compromise us. But we've contacted Amelia Bones. She's willing to listen to you."

Black paled. "Harry, Amelia and I don't have a good history."

"What do you mean?"

"It's hard to explain to someone your age."

"Oh, you mean you cheated on her?"

Black swallowed loudly, "Yeah."

"It's okay. I've been told by people I trust that she's more interested in justice than vengeance."

"That's good. Because last time we talked she threatened to turn my manly bits into vegetables."

Harry couldn't help but grin. "Hurry, now. Stand back."

Sirius got out of the way while Harry flicked his wand. He used the same spell Black did against Snape, and did so intentionally, _"Bombarda!"_

The lock exploded, as did the entire wall around it. Sirius stared at it a moment. "Harry?"

"Er, sorry," Harry said, "Running on adrenaline and all that. Come on. You need to drop me off at the Whomping Willow."

The two climbed onto the stolen broom and flew from the tower until they reached the tree. "Remember, go to Bones," Harry said. "She's going to try and get you a proper trial."

Harry climbed off the broom, but stopped when two stinking arms wrapped around him. "Thank you, Harry," Sirius whispered. "Your mother would be so proud of the man you've become."

"Thanks," Harry said in a thick voice.

Sirius backed away, waved, and then jumped on the broom and disappeared with a flourish into the dark sky. "Just don't run into any dementors," Harry muttered.

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and also to JR and Miles for additional beta reading. As always the three of them made this a better chapter.


	18. Harboring Fugitives

Review responses and comments can be found in my forums:

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**Chapter Eighteen: Harboring Fugitives**

Harry emerged from behind the painting safely hidden in his cloak. The immediate area was empty, but he could hear voices nearby. He didn't know the exact time and didn't dare cast a time spell, but he suspected it was already past the hour he and Hermione travelled back using the Time Turner.

He scuttled through the halls until he reached the Hospital Wing. He saw immediately that Dumbledore was there along with another man in a bowler hat and an outrageously purple pinstripe suit. A pair of red-robed Aurors stood around them. They were talking to Snape, who was holding his head and snarling something in anger.

They made a show of looking around at the seemingly unconscious bodies around them, and then looked directly at Harry.

Harry fought to control his breath when he realized they were looking through him. He quickly moved to the side as the five men walked quickly out of the wing. Only when they were gone did Harry rush back into the hospital wing. The other Harry lay in perfect repose on the bed, still thoroughly strapped in. Adonis did not open his eye until Harry undid the first strap. "So?" he whispered.

"It's done. He's on his way to Bones."

Adonis nodded in satisfaction. "Well done, Harry! Where's Miss Granger?"

"Sent her back to the dorm before I went for Sirius."

Adonis nodded again. "What a fine agent you will be," he said with open pride. "I could see your Patronus Charm from Hogsmeade, Harry. We're going to have to work with you this summer. You seem to be starting your magical maturity a little early."

"Whatever you think best," Harry said as he finished undoing the straps. He then took the other boy's place and watched as Adonis replaced the straps.

When done, Adonis said, "Now, I'm going to place a temporary memory charm on all of you to get you through the interrogations. We will easily lift it, but it will look like a full memory charm to anyone else. I'm going to suppress the memory of this day only. Are you ready?"

"Yes."

"_Rasa dies!"_

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

"What nonsense is this?" Fudge raged.

Dumbledore looked at the empty room with mixed feelings of amusement and anger. Though he needed Black safely contained, the truth was he always liked the young man to a certain extent. "It appears he has escaped, Minister."

"And you!" Fudge said, rounding on Snape, "you told the Aurors that you knew who was helping him?"

"At the moment, Minister," Snape snapped back angrily, "I can barely remember my name. Whoever was working with the convict, obliviated the better part of this entire year!"

"Severus?" Dumbledore said, concerned.

"Headmaster, I am an accomplished Occlumens. I can recognize the signs myself. Whoever did this was a master Obliviator. The culling was powerful enough to slip past my mental defences and skilled enough to cleave a set amount of time." He slumped. "I'm sorry, I truly am, but I cannot be of any help here. It may be years before I recover the full memory."

Dumbledore turned to Fudge. "Perhaps the others may have some answers?"

"They had better!" Fudge said. "This isn't good, Dumbledore. I have to be seen doing something! To let the murderer Black just slip out of my custody is a nightmare. It cannot be allowed!"

They walked back down the tower and made their way to the hospital wing. They found the two students, Potter and Weasley, already waking. Lovegood of course would not wake for some time with all the blood replenishing and bone knitting and pain relief potions in her. Lupin was also awake.

"What is happening here?" Lupin demanded when Dumbledore entered. "Why are we being restrained?"

"That's what I would like to find out!" Fudge said. "You," he said, pointing at Lupin, "what were you doing this evening?"

Lupin blinked in confusion for a moment. "I…I don't know."

Dumbledore stepped past the startled Minister. "Legilimens," he said with a jab of his wand.

Lupin tensed a moment, but then relaxed. Dumbledore, however, scowled. "He has been obliviated as well. I would not be surprised if it was done at the same time as Severus."

Across the room, one of the Aurors bent down and stared into the startled eyes of Ginny Weasley. "This one too," he said. He moved to Harry before straightening. "They've all been obliviated, Minister."

"Blast!" Fudge swore. "He was in our hands, Dumbledore! We had him in our hands and he just walked right out! How?"

"He must have had outside help," Dumbledore said. "We must look at all possible associates in his past. Who, having the power to do so, would also have reason to help Sirius?"

"The man has been locked up for twelve years. How am I supposed to remember any of that?"

"Actually," said one of the Aurors, an older man named Dawlish, "didn't Madam Bones use to date him?"

Dumbledore turned and looked at Fudge, whose face was at first terrified, before it morphed at first into a grin, then into steely resolve. "The head of the DMLE would indeed have a great deal of influence over how Aurors went about searching for Black. And she vocally opposed having the Dementors involved in the search."

"A romantic history is a definite possibility," Dumbledore said. "Sirius had quite a way with women when he was younger."

Fudge turned to Dawlish. "Take a full contingent of Aurors to the home of Amelia Bones. Search her premises. If she resists, place her under arrest."

"And if we find Black?"

"Kill him."

"Yes sir," Dawlish said.

The men left the hospital wing, completely ignoring the horrified expressions on the faces of the bound witnesses within.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Sirius remembered the house. For almost a year after Hogwarts while he was in Auror training, he virtually lived there, until he slipped up as he always seemed to do, and was kicked out violently by the house wards. It was a night much like tonight—icy cold and muted with a thick blanket of snow.

He landed in the back garden, aware that his presence on Bones's soil had set off a variety of wards. He did not try to get any closer, since he knew a more powerful set of inner wards surrounded the home itself. Instead, he gathered his tattered rags around him and settled down into the snow.

Lights Flooded the black yard, followed a moment later by the door opening. A witch stepped out with her wand at the ready. "Who's there?"

"It's me, Amelia," came the hoarse reply. "Harry said to come to you."

Amelia Bones stared at the filthy, stricken man in the center of her yard. "You look like shite, Sirius."

"Feel like it too. Smell like it as well, I suppose. I…I don't know where else to go, Amelia."

"Swear it, Black. Swear to me you didn't kill all those people."

"On my life I swear it!" Sirius said. "I know I ruined things with us. I ruined so many things. But you must know I'd die before I'd betray James and Lily. I loved them so much. I just…I don't know where else to go."

The despair of his voice was overpowering.

"Sirius, you can't stay here," Amelia said. "It's not exactly a secret we dated. Come on!"

Sirius jumped to his feet and followed her into the house. She let him straight to the fireplace. "St. Claire!"

The fire flared green. Sirius stared at her a moment. "Your cousin's?"

"You remember?" Amelia said, genuinely surprised.

He smiled abashedly. "You know what they say; you never truly know what you have until you throw it away in a wash of stupid hormones. Thank you, Amelia."

A chime sounded. "Damn," she said. "Go, Sirius, now!"

He stepped into the Floo and disappeared. Just then a heavy fist began pounding on her door. She walked out of the sitting room and the Floo connection there, through the entry hall, and to the main entrance of Bones Manor. She made sure her wand was at the ready. "Who is there?"

"Madam Bones, this is Senior Auror Dawlish. I have orders from the Minister of Magic to search your home for Sirius Black."

Though it was not a secret she and Sirius dated briefly, it seemed odd they would make the connection so quickly. Well, odd for anyone save for Dawlish. The man had the temerity to attempt to court her despite her position as his boss.

"Very well," she called. She undid the locks, released the wards with her wand, and opened the door. Dawlish was one of over a dozen Aurors.

"Ma'am," Dawlish said with only a token nod. "I'm sorry to bother you. We're here on the Minister's personal orders."

"Of course," Amelia said. Dawlish was not one of her hires, and was a man she would happily see disappear from her department if she could swing it politically.

The squad entered her home and immediately started a magical sweep, using locator spells to search every room, every hall, and every space a person could hide in. The sweeps did not just look for bodies, but also active concealing magic.

It took only ten minutes for them to find the broom in the back garden. Amelia was sitting in the kitchen drinking tea when Dawlish stepped in from the back and kicked the snow off his boots. "Madam, can you explain how you have a Slytherin Quidditch broom in your back garden?"

Amelia made a show of raising one brow. "Now that is quite odd, since I was Hufflepuff. I did play, though. I was a chaser for two years."

"Madam," Dawlish said. "There were footprints leading to your door."

"There was a ward trip shortly before you arrived," Amelia explained. "If someone tried to access the home without permission, the inner wards would banish them off the property. If Black did try to come here, despite my standing threat to hex his bits into turnips, knowing I would then have him Kissed per standing Ministry orders, he would never have made it past the door. I would recommend beginning a search pattern around this neighborhood as he must obviously be on foot."

Dawlish wasn't buying any of it, but it didn't matter. They could not prove anything, but the accusation alone would be enough to cost Amelia her job.

"Madam, I'm very sorry, but I'm afraid you're going to have to come with me."

"I will cooperate, of course," Amelia said. "Have your men leave the house while I set the wards."

Dawlish slowly removed his wand. "Madam, I am very sorry, but I cannot allow you to do that. Please come with me now."

Amelia made a show of standing. "Are you trying to arrest me, Auror?"

"I am taking you into custody pending possible charges of harbouring a fugitive, Madam. I am very sorry. Please place your wand on the table."

"This will not end well for you, Dawlish."

"We shall see, Madam."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Xenophilius Lovegood walked through the main entrance of Hogwarts the following morning with a heavy scowl. He was met by Professor Flitwick. "Xeno," the Charms master said. "I'm sorry to see you in such circumstances."

"How is my daughter?"

"She is doing much better. She will be ready to leave the hospital wing by tomorrow."

"And Black did this to her?" the old wizard said.

"That is what I was told," Flitwick said. "Although why Black was here in the first place I'm sure I don't understand. Anyway, let's go see Miss Lovegood, shall we?" The diminutive professor saw him the hospital wing before turning to leave.

Xeno was pleased to see both Harry and Ginny sitting by Luna's bed. The three students looked up at him and nodded gravely. "Hello, Rutabaga," he said as he gently hugged his daughter. "How are you?"

"I appear to have an infestation of wrackspurts," she said. "Yesterday is a blank slate."

"Ah," Xeno said with understanding. He touched her head and said, "_Tabula_."

She closed her eyes as memory came flooding back. Ginny and Harry both leaned over Luna to let him do the same for them. They both sat back momentarily, reabsorbing the memories. "Sir, please, what's happening?" Harry finally asked.

Xeno removed his wand and very quietly cast privacy charms around the bed. "Black has been recovered safely. Amelia sent him to a home we had under surveillance and Adonis was able to collect him safely. However, I did not predict that Albus and Cornelius would take the opportunity to discredit and arrest Madam Bones."

"What?" Ginny gasped. "Amelia Bones is famous for being honest!"

"She is also well known as being one of Sirius Black's longest-standing romances. I remember quite well the rumour that she would make an honest man of him. They lived together for almost a year before he ruined the relationship. Evidently one of Fudge's stooges made the connection. The stolen broom was found at her property. They have already scheduled a trial for her in three day's time."

"If she is removed, there is a very good chance the ministry will fall within four years," Luna predicted.

"I know, I've seen your projections," Xeno said. "We were played. I will give Albus this—the man is a master politician. He has managed to manoeuvre one of the few light-side opponents he has into a corner that she cannot easily escape from."

"Will she be found guilty?" Harry asked.

"Almost certainly not, but the trial itself will be sufficient to force her resignation." Xeno sighed and scowled down at the bed.

"Father," Luna said, "she obviously had to have some supporters to achieve her office. I wonder if we could turn this trial to our favour."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you not think that Millicent Bagnold would wish to visit her?"

"Minister Bagnold is a hundred years old and has retired from public life," Xeno said.

"She was also the most popular minister this century. She could get in to speak with Amelia about which Aurors can be trusted. And she never had any love for Dumbledore. Not to mention the fact she was fond of you."

Xeno seemed to consider the suggestion for a while. "Perhaps I'll contact her. In the meantime, how are you?"

"There is pain, but it is easing," she said. "Snape was a better dueller than the three of us combined plus Lupin."

"That will change in time, believe me," Xeno promised. "It would not surprise me if he was there that night on Dumbledore's personal orders." He leaned over and kissed Luna's forehead. "Be well, child. Let these two take care of you."

"I will," Luna promised.

"And we will," Harry and Ginny added.

Xeno turned and walked out of the school with his brow furrowed by heavy thought. The moment he stepped past the school wards he apparated directly to the Rookery. Adonis was waiting for him when he arrived. "The trial date has been set," the younger agent said. "The _Prophet_ is already running a full-page story detailing the 'fall of Amelia Bones'. It's becoming a circus court."

"Of course it is," Xeno said. "Dumbledore wants Amelia out. Regardless of the outcome of the trial, she will not be able to retain her position."

"What are we going to do?"

"We're going to stage a coup," Xeno said.

Adonis grinned. "That sounds quite fun. First steps?"

"Inform Croaker to mobilize the hit squads. I would prefer the Department's role be minimized, but if my daughter's projections are correct…"

"…and they are. They match the Department's internal projections to a high degree."

"…then we cannot afford to lose Amelia."

"I'll let him know," Adonis said with a nod. He grabbed his Unspeakable Cloak, pulled up the hood with its obscuring charm, and stepped out of the house.

Alone, Xeno turned to the fire place and threw in a pinch of powder, "Bagnold Mansion. Millicent, it's Xeno. Are you there?"

The voice on the other side sounded weary. "You'd better come through, Xeno, and explain this news article to me."

Xeno stepped through the fire and into a well lit, cheery sitting room.

Former Minister for Magic Millicent Bagnold sat in a heavily padded rocking chair between two end tables. She had a King James Bible on one table, and the Bagnold Family Grimoire on the other. A folded edition of the Daily Prophet lay on her lap. There was no other furniture in the room.

Bagnold, though over a decade younger than Dumbledore, was still a very old witch. Her iron gray hair was pressed into tight curls that clung to her skull. Deep-set gray eyes rested in the middle of a long, well-worn face lined with wrinkles and a circle of glaringly bright red lipstick.

"That lipstick doesn't become you," he said by way of greeting.

"I had a visit from my great, great grandson. It is tradition that I leave a lip print on his cheek," she said, "What is happening, Xeno? Why is my protégé Amelia being treated like this?"

Xeno transfigured a chair for himself and sat to face his former boss. "We tried to give you a level of deniability," he said. "And so you never knew of the Pantheon Project."

"Not officially, anyway," she said. "But if you recall, you needed my authorization to begin it."

Xeno knew better than to be surprised. "You were always sharp, Millicent. You were aware that Harry Potter was a sport?"

Bagnold showed no surprise. "No, but it does explain why Voldemort attacked him."

"Peter Pettigrew was the secret keeper, not Sirius Black. We have Pettigrew in custody. He's named names. He has told us that he framed Black not just to escape, but because Dumbledore ordered him to. Evidently, like Snape, Pettigrew tried playing both sides. There was a prophecy, and Dumbledore used Snape to ensure Voldemort learned of it, and he ordered Pettigrew to assist in its fruition. And in return for Peter's life, he framed Black."

"The old man wanted control of Potter."

"Yes. The Potter Will was sealed on Dumbledore's orders and Harry was forced to live with truly loathsome and abusive relatives. He was nearly beaten to death last summer before Adonis intervened."

"A bad place to be in, Xeno. Did Amelia in fact harbour Black?"

"Yes. I approached her in the hopes she would assist in getting him a trial."

"That was foolish. There was too obvious a connection there. That girl was smitten with the arrogant jackass. Wouldn't listen to me. The folly of youth often comes back to haunt our later years."

"There is still hope," Xeno said. "An opportunity to get Black his trial through Amelia's."

"To what purpose?"

"We have projections that show the ministry will fall within four years under its current leadership."

Bagnold nodded. "Then perhaps you should let it fall."

"Perhaps. But you don't believe that."

"No," the old witch sighed, "mores' the pity, I don't. I served the ministry for sixty years. It is hard for me to watch it implode under Fudge's clumsy fingers."

"Corrupt fingers as well. Peter confirmed Malfoy carries the Dark Mark and has been paying Fudge off for almost a decade."

"And we weren't even allowed to check his arm at the time," Bagnold mused. "You won't beat Albus in a straight confrontation. But if you give him an out that allows him to save face, he might be willing to sacrifice Fudge."

"Are you still with the International?"

"Bringing in the ICW is risky, Xeno. Your sport is not yet ready to reveal himself."

"It won't matter if he does if there is no support structure to help him," Xeno said. "Even sports can lose."

"Albus hasn't yet, and Riddle's defeat was a fluke." Bagnold fell silent and still as only the truly ancient could. Finally, she sighed and pushed herself to her feet with surprising vitality. "Is Algie still with the Department?"

"He is."

"Let me get my cloak. I'm assuming you want me to visit Amelia to see who is trustworthy in the DMLE?"

"It would help. Your name carries a lot of respect still."

"Very well, Xeno. Go back home for now. I'll work through Algie."

"Thank you, Mille."

"Go on, now, young man."

* * *

sp

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and also to JR and Miles for additional beta reading. In fact, this week is especially appreciated since they didn't even see the chapter until yesterday, and still managed to get it to me in a day. Thank you!


	19. Trial of the Century

**Chapter Nineteen: The Trial of the Century**

"Millicent! What a surprise!" Cornelius Fudge said as his predecessor stepped into his office. "What can I do for you?"

"I want to see Amelia," she said.

Fudge's smile evaporated. "I can't do that, Millicent. Her position as the head of the DMLE puts us all in a precarious position."

"Don't give me that, Cornelius. I warned that girl years ago to stay away from Black. I told her no good would come of it, and now this. I want to hear from her own lips what she was thinking. Now let me in to see her or I swear by Merlin's beard I'll beat you senseless with that silly hat of yours."

Fudge sunk under the threat. "Yes, of course, Millicent. If it were anyone but you… Auror Dawlish? Since you've escorted Minister Bagnold so far, could you continue and see her to Madame Bones' cell?"

"Right, sir. This way, Madame."

When they finally reached the cell, Bagnold sent Dawlish scurrying away with a threat to turn him into a chicken. She settled down inside the cell of a surprised Amelia Bones on a conjured rocker.

"Well, Amelia, what did I tell you about Black?"

"That he was trouble," Amelia sighed.

"And was he?"

"Always. That was, sadly, part of his charm."

Bagnold lifted her finger while beginning a diatribe against Amelia's intellect for having feelings for such a man. The old fingers, knotted by age, began to flick with increasing speed, as if remembering something from long ago.

Amelia made a show of wilting under the verbal assault even while she stared at the flicking fingers. Finally, she said, "That's exactly what Williamson said."

"And he was right," Millicent snapped. She stood up and banished the rocker with a flick of her wand. "Amelia, you were one of the best witches I have ever known. I have loved you almost as a daughter. Do not let this ruin you."

"I'll try not to, Milli."

The former minister nodded and then signaled Dawlish that she was ready to leave.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

That night, Devon Williamson kissed his daughter good night before joining his wife in the sitting room before the fire. He did not speak as he let the day's trials finally show. He fought very hard to hide his problems from his daughter, but it was impossible to do so in front of his wife.

Delia Williamson kneaded his shoulders in silence for a moment, simply serving as company. She was a mediwitch at St. Mungos, and was an accomplished masseuse. In no time the knots of muscle were gone. Devon sighed and leaned back into her embrace. "I'm thinking about resigning," he finally said.

"Because of Amelia?"

He nodded. "Rufus is almost certain to move up, and Robards is his man through and through. I'm just not sure that's the kind of place I want to work for any more."

"Where would we go?"

"Gringotts is always willing to hire good wizard security. Won't pay as much, but at least with the goblins you know what you're in for."

Both of them sat up when the house wards alerted them to the presence of a visitor. "Were you expecting anyone this late?" he asked.

Delia shook her head. "They would have floo'd."

He removed his wand and walked cautiously to the door. "Who is there?" he said through the grill.

"Devon Williamson?" a muffled voice said.

"Who is this?"

"I am an Unspeakable. I carry an important message."

Devon stepped back from the door in concern. "Delia, get your wand. Be ready to activate the intruder wards."

"I'm ready."

He opened the door, and sure enough someone in an Unspeakable cloak stood on the other side of the threshold. "Your caution is well-advised," the person said. "We spoke to Amelia Bones today and asked her if there was anyone in the DMLE she trusted more than most. She gave us your name. Is this true, Auror Williamson? Can you be trusted?"

"What is this about?"

"The collapse of the Ministry."

Devon looked back at his wife with wide eyes, and then stepped aside. "You'd better come in."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Amelia held her head up high as Dawlish and Kingsly Shacklebolt escorted her into the chamber. Because of her name and position, her trial was to be held before a session of the full Wizengamot and open to the public. Conversation dropped only a little as she stepped in and began the walk down to the floor of the chamber. She noticed that Dumbledore already stood in his place in the center of the stepped seats of the chamber as the Chief Warlock, while Fudge as minister would actually be presenting the Ministry's case.

She was surprised to find Millicent Bagnold sitting at her table. She knew that her old patroness was a magical barrister prior to her time as minister, but did not think she was still licensed to practice.

The aurors removed her manacles and allowed her to sit. "Milli, what's going on?" she whispered.

"Follow my lead, dear," Milli said.

"Attention!" Dumbledore said. His voice reverberated magically throughout the chamber. "This special session of the Wizengamot is hereby called to order. The business for the day is the trial of Amelia Bones, who stands accused of harboring a known murderer and escapee from Azkaban. Presenting the Ministry's charges will be Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic. Defending will be Millicent Bagnold, former Minister for Magic."

Evidently not everyone recognized the ancient witch, as her name sparked a flurry of whispered conversations.

Bagnold stood, moving slowly. "Chief Warlock and esteemed colleagues, before we begin, may I have a few moments to speak?"

"Considering your life accomplishments, Madame, it is the least we can do," Dumbledore said graciously.

"I'm glad you think so, my friend. Auror Williamson, please proceed."

The whole room fell deathly quiet as the doors banged open and a line of red-clad aurors marched into the room. They formed a line surrounding the entire chamber, and then closed the doors again.

"What is the meaning of this?" Fudge demanded.

Bagnold did not smile as her dark, sunken eyes pierced the current minister. "Minister Fudge, in accordance with the Articles of Magic Section 45, Subsection 13, paragraph 4, I hereby charge you with gross negligence, corruption and conspiracy to commit treason in abeyance of your oath of office. I have absolute proof that not only is Sirius Black innocent of all charges made against him, but that you and Bartemius Crouch Sr. knowingly prosecuted and sentenced him to life imprisonment without trial at the behest of a marked Death Eater who you later allowed freedom in return for bribes of almost unspeakable amounts. I further assert that Amelia Bones was assisting me in the investigation of these facts when you created these spurious charges in an attempt to deflect the investigation into your own crimes. The aurors present are proof of her loyal and dedicated pursuit of justice. By my personal authority as a Senior Officer of the Ministry, Grande Dame of the Wizengamot and Grande Dame of the International Confederation of Wizards, these aurors will allow no one to leave until my charges are satisfied with a plea of guilty or innocent. I hereby demand an immediate hearing on these charges before this body."

"You're insane," Fudge stammered.

"And you are a bumbling, idiotic crook," she snapped back. "You have disgraced the office and ruined the heritage I worked so hard to create. And I will see you dead or in Azkaban before the end of this day." She turned to Dumbledore. "Chief Warlock, my charges so far do not involve you. It is my belief that someone who has fought so hard and for so long for the Light could not possibly be implicated in this. But I swear to you now that my proof is incontrovertible, and will not be denied. Shall I have my hearing, or shall things get interesting?"

Dumbledore kept his face immobile as his mind worked furiously to calculate the path with the greatest odds of his retaining power. "Madame," he finally said, "in all the decades we have known each other I have never known you to be anything less than sincere. I have no doubt you believe firmly in your cause, and cannot imagine that such charges could go unanswered. So I shall call for a vote. All those in favor of hearing the evidence Madame Bagnold claims to have, say 'Aye.'"

The vote was split right along supporters and non-supporters. However, just enough people were upset with Fudge that the vote carried, if just barely.

"Thank you, my friends," Bagnold. "Aurors, bring in the first witness."

The doors opened and two aurors escorted a man in with a hood over his head. He was placed in the center of the room. The hood was removed, but few recognized him. Millicent stepped to the center of the floor.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to Black's supposed victim, Peter Pettigrew. Mr. Pettigrew has been given veritaserum by the Ministry Potions Master, who has provided an affidavit affirming the correct dosage was provided."

"What is this?" Fudge said, pale.

"What is your name?" Bagnold said, ignoring the minister.

"Peter Pettigrew," the captive said with the typical slurring of the truth serum.

"Did Sirius Black betray the Potters in October of 1981?"

"No."

"Did you betray the Potters in October of 1981?"

"Yes."

"Are you a Death Eater?"

"Yes."

Stunned whispers swept through the crowd and the Wizengamot alike.

"Did you kill the twelve muggles Sirius Black is accused of killing?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I was told to make sure Sirius Black went to Azkaban."

Back at her table, Amelia noticed how Dumbledore's right eye twitched at that.

"Mr. Pettigrew, was Cornelius Fudge one of the people who instructed you to ensure Black's guilt?"

"Yes."

"Was Bartemius Crouch Sr. another?"

"Yes."

"Peter, was Lucius Malfoy…."

"How dare you!" Malfoy roared.

"Aurors, subdue that Death Eater," Amelia said. It was a mark of respect that even though she was technically still on trial, twenty stunners struck the Malfoy Patriarch and sent him flying out of the Wizengamot stands. Two of the aurors went and grabbed the man and bound him before tossing him on the floor by Amelia. She smiled her thanks, and of the two, Williamson winked back at her.

"Let us repeat the question," Bagnold said. "Was Lucius Malfoy a Death Eater?"

"Yes."

"Did he join Voldemort of his old accord?"

"Yes."

"What was his primary function?"

"To help finance the Dark Lord's operations."

"So he was important?"

"He was a part of the Dark Lord's inner circle."

"Did Lucius Malfoy take part in any of the infamous revels?"

"He took part in all of them."

"What was Lucius Malfoy's relationship to Cornelius Fudge before Voldemort's fall?"

"Malfoy funded Fudge's political career and made sure he was not targeted by the Dark Lord."

"What did Malfoy and Voldemort expect in return?"

"For Cornelius to eventually become Minister and to ease Voldemort's takeover of the Ministry."

Bagnold walked over to the stunned Malfoy. "Witches and wizards, it was claimed in Malfoy's trial, a trial that Sirius Black never received, that he was under the Imperius Curse. Mr. Pettigrew, is it possible for a Death Eater to receive the Dark Mark while under the Imperius Curse?"

"No," Pettigrew said. "The mark is a type of protean charm that requires the knowing consent of the recipient."

"Auror, his arm, please?"

One of the aurors lifted Lucius' left arm and exposed the clearly visible dark mark tattoo.

Bagnold walked steadily back to the table and resumed her seat beside Amelia. "Minister Fudge, Mr. Pettigrew is at your convenience. Do you wish to ask him any questions?"

Fudge looked at Dumbledore, who stared back with a look of pure ice in his blue eyes. "He's lying," Fudge finally said.

"Is that a question, Minister?" Bagnold said. "I am very old. I do not want to be here, and do not appreciate having to waste my time cleaning up your mess. If you have a question for Mr. Pettigrew, please ask it now."

"This doesn't excuse Bones for harboring a fugitive!" he screamed.

"I am the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," Amelia said coldly. "I knew what was happening and realized any attempt to bring Black in would result in his death. Did you not have a standing order to have Black kissed upon capture? Did you not have dementors nearly kill a thirteen year old boy and two twelve-year-old girls in an attempt to kill Black as well?"

The news that children were injured by the dementors caused angry muttering around the room.

"Do you have any questions, Minister?" Bagnold demanded again. "This is your opportunity to defend yourself. What do you have to say?"

"I am the Minister for Magic!" Fudge shouted. "I don't have to listen to these lies!"

"Since Minister Fudge appears not to have a desire to question the witness further, and since the witness's very existence is itself incontrovertible proof that Sirius Black is an innocent man, and that Fudge knew this when he denied Black a trial, I hereby petition for a vote on three items; one, that all charges against Amelia Bones be immediately dismissed; two, that Cornelius Fudge be removed from office immediately to face criminal prosecution; and three, that all charges against Sirius Black be dropped immediately. What say you, Chief Warlock?"

Amelia could see the thoughts churning in the old warlock's brain. Still, he kept his face composed as he nodded. "I say we shall have a vote. On the first order, those in favor of dismissing all charges against Amelia Bones, say 'Aye.'"

This time, the division of votes was far less favorable to Fudge. More than three quarters voted to dismiss all charges. Amelia nodded.

"Second order, and this one requires a two thirds majority, those in favor of removing Cornelius Fudge from office, say 'Aye.'"

It was of course a game of political survivorship. Fudge's reputation was damaged beyond any repair, and any support would be detrimental. And so with a clear, unanimous vote, Cornelius Fudge was removed from office.

The final vote passed with also a near unanimous vote.

"Thank you, my friends," Bagnold finally said. "Before I leave I will tell you this—there was a reason why I promoted such a young witch to the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement over more experienced aurors. In all my years I have never met a more powerful, dedicated and intelligent public servant than Amelia Bones. She was willing to jeopardize her own career and freedom to ensure that justice was done. When it is time to select a minister, I would strongly urge you to keep her in mind. For as much as Fudge has ruined the honour of this ministry, Amelia has fought to restore it. Thank you."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Dumbledore threw his robe of office into a corner of the room and slammed a fist on the desk in his office. He felt the fool, and it was not a good feeling. Victory was so very close—he could never have predicted that Millicent Bagnold of all people would come out of retirement.

He looked up in surprise at the knock on the chamber door. The Chief Warlock had his own office at the ministry, though he rarely used it except to change into his formal robes.

"Come in," he said with forced joviality.

The door opened and Bagnold stepped in. She made a point of closing the door behind her. "Hello, Albus. I hope you are doing well?"

"Very well, Millicent. I must say what a delight it was seeing you in action again."

"It should not have been necessary," she said. "But I shall accept the literal meaning of your words and thank you. Of course, we both know what would have happened had I asked Pettigrew to list everyone who ordered him to frame Black."

"I noticed your wording was very precise. What exactly is it you want, Millicent?"

All hint of friendliness faded from Bagnold's face. "I did not want to be here, Albus. I cannot believe the mess you've made of things. I saved you today because of what you did in the past, but that is the last time. And don't even think of attacking me—I'm the spokesperson only. For giving you an out today, I expect you to support Amelia for Minister. That is why I posted her as head of the DMLE in the first place. I frankly never expected Fudge to last as long as he did, and it upsets me he lasted only because of you and Lucius Malfoy."

"You ask a great deal."

"I ask a fraction of what you owe. Second, with Black's exoneration, you shall release the seal on the Potter will and it will be executed."

Dumbledore's eyes widened. "This is all about Potter," he realized.

"Of course it is, you old fool. The Department of Mysteries administers the Miltventnor tests. Such treatment of a sport is criminal, Albus. It's in the Articles and in the International laws themselves. If word got out of how that boy's relatives treated him, nothing would salvage your reputation. He will not go back there."

"Millicent, there are Blood Wards to keep him safe there."

"Albus, you can fool Fudge, but not me. Blood wards may be powerful, but they are no more effective than a modern Fidelius with a trustworthy secret-keeper. And since the boy was almost beaten to death last summer, I would suggest they are worse than useless in protecting him from his relatives. You will do this, Albus. We don't want to make an enemy of you, but if you fight us on this we will destroy you. Your name will be cursed across three continents. You will lose your ICW posting. You are not the only sport in the world, just the oldest. Grayson in Australia would be very interested in how you treated Harry, and I do believe he could hand your own testicles to you."

"Millicent, there are things you don't…."

"We know about the horcruxes, Albus, including the one in Mr. Potter. We just don't care—this is going to happen." She took a step toward him. "Albus, I looked up to you as a hero after you fought Grindelwald. Your refusal to become minister cemented your standing in my eyes. But what you have done with this boy has made me sick. Any respect I had for the hero of the last war is gone. All I see is a foolish, vile old man willing to harm a child as thoroughly as the villain he supposedly opposed."

Her words struck at Dumbledore, making him back up a step. "The prophecy says they can only live if they kill the other. Harry has to fight Voldemort, but even if he destroys Riddle, the horcrux would remain."

"There is more than one way to skin a kneazle, Albus," Bagnold said. "For all you have done for us in the past, I am asking you to take a step back from this. You are so powerful—there is so very much you could teach Harry. Please don't fight us on this. Don't make Harry Potter your enemy. I promise he _will_ come into his full power, and when he does, he will not take kindly to old men who allow children to be abused.

Dumbledore slumped. "I shall consider your words, Millicent."

"For all our sakes, I hope you do."

She turned and walked out of the room, leaving the chief warlock to his own troubled thoughts.

* * *

sp

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Miles for stepping up for beta reading thsi week. Teufel and JBR are both traveling-congratulations to JBR for his daughter's graduation!


	20. Friends and Enemies

Author's Note: I had some really good reviews and comments for last chapter. As always, review responses are posted in my Defense For Two Forum, the link to which is in my profile.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty: Friends and Enemies**

Amelia Bones became the youngest person ever appointed as Minister of Magic, and only the fifth witch to hold the office. She assumed her new duties at the end of Harry's third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Harry watched it all play out in the newspapers in the months following what papers were calling the "Trial of the Century". Though the Quibbler was simply a front for Xenophilius Lovegood's more serious pursuits, nonetheless he employed the paper to great effect, providing a baseline against which the Daily Prophet and the other magical newspapers had to compare themselves.

The campaign period in which new candidates were vetted lasted two months, during which time Harry, Ginny and the rest of the Gryffindors slaughtered a badly shaken Slytherin team at Quidditch. Draco did not even play—in fact he missed almost a month of classes after the revelation of his father's double life. Toward the end of the game, Harry wanted to catch the snitch not to rub the other team's face in their loss, but to put an end to their misery. The 560-10 drubbing was the most lopsided in school history, and few took any pleasure in it.

The last game of the season was going to be in May against Ravenclaw.

In the meantime, Harry attended classes during the day and at night and on the weekends he, Ginny and Luna continued to sneak out to the Shrieking Shack. Although Ron and Hermione never joined their weekend jaunts, they would sometimes join their evening training sessions with Remus.

Ron proved to be surprisingly good at Tai Chi. Hermione even more surprisingly was not.

On the morning of Amelia's victory, a whole swarm of owls burst into the great hall with newspapers proclaiming Amelia Bones the new hope for Wizarding England. Harry took a certain amount of pride in her victory, thinking perhaps in his own way he contributed to making the world a slightly better place.

Almost the very next day, Harry and the other students read about new initiatives and security measures instituted by the Ministry. Unbreakable Vows of loyalty to senior department heads was a shock to many, but not as shocking as when two Ministry heads resigned rather than make an oath that essentially stated they would never betray the Ministry of Magic.

Another initiative that was surprising in its simplicity and the fact that it was previously forbidden was the forced baring of left forearms to any seeking admission to the Ministry. This initiative was launched one morning without warning to all incoming employees. Four Death Eaters were identified almost immediately, including Fudge's senior undersecretary of magic.

In April, Sirius Black was formally exonerated and awarded a hefty sum in compensation for his wrongful imprisonment. The written exoneration was a formality following the Wizengamot vote in January, but the compensation was anything but.

There were other articles as well about all the different people who had to resign or face criminal charges. Harry did not know who Barty Crouch was, but evidently the man felt guilty enough over his actions that he killed himself. Luna noted how odd it was that Crouch used the killing curse on himself, but his wand then disappeared.

"No trace of the family elf, either," Ginny said.

Harry just shrugged. "Elf probably took the wand. Who knows for sure?"

April was also the month that Draco returned to school. The once arrogant, self-appointed Prince of Slytherin looked pale and thin, as if he had not eaten in weeks. He sat with his old cronies but no longer laughed or joked. Pansy Parkinson noticeably moved to sit closer to Blaise Zabini during evening meals.

If not for what Malfoy did to Luna, Harry would almost feel sorry for the boy. Almost.

The last game of the school year rolled around, and once more they were playing for the cup. Cho Chang had improved a great deal as a flier. She was not as fast as Harry, but she had good eyes and coordination. She also adopted some of the tactics that had allowed Gryffindor to sweep the last seven games and played a more active role with her chasers.

It was the closest, most hard fought, and most thoroughly enjoyable game Harry had played that year. No Dementors came in to try and kill him or interrupt him. Ginny, Katie and Angelina were flying like Valkyries, while he flitted about stealing the Quaffle from the other team and passing it quickly on to the Chasers every chance he had to disrupt the other team.

The Snitch showed itself after three hours of hard play. He and Cho saw it at the same time and both made mad dashes for it. It was an honest contest, seeker against seeker. Harry found himself grinning madly, and when Cho realized that, she couldn't help but laugh—right up until he snatched the snitch right out of her fingers.

Ginny did not kiss him at the party that night, but as he settled down on the couch after several Butterbeers, she did snuggle up beside him. She was deliciously warm, and as the party wore on, her warmth and the soothing nature of their cuddling pulled him into a gentle sleep.

Only as the party wound down did people realize the two youngest players, and consequently the brightest stars of the team, were soundly asleep together on the couch.

"What should we do with them?" Oliver finally asked.

"They are cute together, aren't they?" Katie said. "It's almost a shame to wake them up."

"They look happy," Hermione said, wistfully. She stood beside Ron, who stared at the pair with a confused expression.

It was the twins who shrugged and gently draped a blanket over the young couple. It was also the twins that turned and headed Percy off as the Head Boy decided it was time to wake them up. "Touch them," Fred said.

"And we'll turn your willy into a canary," George said.

Not surprisingly, Percy merely nodded and returned to the head boy suite.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The year came to a close with surprising speed after all the excitement following the beginning of the Spring Term. The potions final was a nightmare, of course. Snape glared angrily at everyone—even going so far as to deduct points from his own house, but by then it didn't matter. The other tests went by much better. Harry's hardest tests were Runes and Arithmancy, but even those he felt he did alright in.

The evening of the second to last day in school, as they finished eating, Harry received a summons to the Headmaster's office. Luna, who happened to be eating with them that evening, looked at the note for a moment before nodding.

"What's that mean?" Ron asked her.

"It means that the muscles in my neck both contracted and expanded in such a way as to create an upward and then downward movement of my head," Luna said as she stared back at him.

He flushed slightly. "You know what I mean."

"Perhaps, but I also know what the words you said meant, which evidently you did not. If you are to truly excel, Ronald, you must choose your words more carefully."

"She's right, Ron," Hermione said helpfully.

"Not two of 'em," he groaned.

"I think it means my parents' will was finally executed," Harry said.

"Shouldn't you have been there?" Hermione asked.

"Harry is a minor," Luna pointed out. "There would be no reason for his attendance since he cannot legally make decisions on his own."

"What if they emancipated him?"

"The Wizengamot has never emancipated anyone prior to achieving their O.W.L.s," Luna said resolutely, "Ever."

"Oh," Hermione said weakly.

Luna, though, looked back to Harry. "The headmaster may be apologetic. I have been led to believe he is trying to consolidate his position, and will attempt to befriend you. While rejecting him may not be the wisest course of action, pure acceptance may also be unwise."

"I understand," Harry said with a nod. He finished his dinner in a rush. The headmaster was already gone. "I'd better go."

Ginny held his hand and looked up at him with a hopeful smile. "Good luck, Harry."

"Thanks," he said.

He made his way through the familiar halls of the school until he came to the headmaster's office. He said the password written on the note and then rode the ascending stairs until he stepped out into the office.

The cavernous office was, as always, crowded with portraits of former headmasters, and a long line of strange devices. It had been some time since he was there.

"Harry, please come in and have a seat," Dumbledore said. "Would you like a lemon drop?"

"No, thank you, Professor."

Harry climbed up onto the slightly too-large seat, and noted that the size differential was less than the last time he sat in it. In fact, it was almost comfortable now.

"You have grown a great deal, my boy," Dumbledore said as he studied Harry.

"Yes, sir. Hogwarts has great food."

"Yes, it does at that."

The two sat in silence for the longest time. Harry tried not to fidget, but it was incredibly difficult under the gaze of the headmaster. Finally, he said, "Did you want to talk to me, sir?"

"Honestly, I'm trying to find the best way to begin," Dumbledore said. "It is not often that one such as I am brought low, Harry. It is at once humiliating, infuriating, and alas, essential. For you see, I have made a dreadful, terrible mistake. One for which I hope to one day receive your forgiveness."

The old wizard popped a sherbet lemon into his mouth and leaned back with the creaking of his wooden chair. "I met your aunt when she was twelve, Harry. She wrote me after your mother was admitted, begging me to let her come here. There were teardrops on the letter. That is perhaps the most unfortunate aspect of this school, and the wizarding world in general. By tradition and fear we have made it very difficult for people to live in both worlds. Wizards have traditionally taken a 'them or us' approach to the non-magical world. And so what happens is that loving happy sisters are torn apart by different worlds, and some are left behind to become bitter and lonely, while those swept up in magic are often destroyed by what should have protected them."

He leaned forward and stared hard at Harry. There was no glitter; no bemused smile. Dumbledore looked old and tired. "After what the muggles refer to as the second world war, many people came to me for advice and leadership. Here I was; a life-long academic, who because of magical power was forced into a leadership position. I told those who came to me that I was undeserving of their trust, but they told me that if not me, no one else would provide leadership. That because of my magical power I was the only logical leader of the light in Britain. And old fool that I am, I slowly began to believe them.

"Then something terrible happened. It was in some ways worse than Grindlewald, because the blame fell squarely on my shoulders. A former student of mine shed all traces of his humanity and delved into the darkest magic imaginable, until young Tom Riddle disappeared, and only Voldemort remained. This boy I had recovered from the orphanage, who had the same unlimited potential for magic as me, took the opposite path I did and turned to darkness. And I realized that I could have stopped him. Perhaps if I had taken him out of the orphanage, or learned to love him, I could have saved him. But I didn't. He returned to that orphanage every summer, and after his third year did not even complain about it anymore. If only I knew now what I know then."

Harry sat perfectly still. "And years later," he said, shocked by the tense quality of his own words, "you do the same thing to another boy with unlimited magical potential, and like Riddle he also stopped complaining while young."

Dumbledore visibly sank in on himself, his shoulders slumped. "Precisely," he admitted. "My excuses this time were the wards I fashioned from the sanguine relation you and Petunia share. The wards are a thing of beauty, Harry. A Gringotts ward breaker actually cried at their beauty when he tested them several years ago. I congratulated myself on my magical work, while blithely ignoring the pain and suffering of the charge I was supposed to be protecting."

"Were they worth sending an innocent man to prison for twelve years?"

"Ah, I wondered just how much you know."

"I read the transcript of the trial, Headmaster. Hermione noticed how careful Minister Bagnold was when she questioned Pettigrew on who framed Sirius Black."

"Indeed. You must understand, my boy, how troubling those times were. I knew the moment I saw your scar what had happened."

"The Horcrux."

Dumbledore blinked in surprise that Harry even knew the word, but quickly recovered. "Yes, the Horcrux. I knew Voldemort was not gone, and that you were the only one who could truly destroy him. You had to be protected at all cost. And here was Sirius Black, mad with grief. One of your father's friends had betrayed him, and the other was a werewolf. I decided in my arrogance that none of them were fit guardians, and hatched a scheme to ensure you were be safely hidden away from our world. I thought this would protect you from the fame that was sure to come. I was wrong, of course."

Harry found it difficult to breathe. "Wrong? You ruined Sirius's life! You ruined mine! You can't imagine what it was like for me! And you sit there eating sweets and telling me the hell you put us all through was just 'wrong'? What gave you the right to make that decision in the first place?"

"I cannot change the past, though I wish it were otherwise," Dumbledore said sadly. "The truth, Harry, is that my plan was doomed to failure no matter what. I was going to use you, without doubt. It never dawned on me that I would come to care for you like I…"

"Headmaster, please don't finish that statement. I don't think I could stand it."

Dumbledore nodded and leaned back in his seat. The apologetic old man disappeared, replaced by a more cunning gaze. "So where does this leave us, Mr. Potter?"

"It leaves us as headmaster and student, sir," Harry said carefully. "Anything beyond that will depend on you."

"Indeed," Dumbledore said. "Well, the other reason for our visit should be arriving soon."

At that very moment, the fireplace along the far side of the headmaster's office flared with green light and two figures stepped out. The first was no taller than Professor Flitwick, with a long, scythe-shaped nose dominating a flat, ugly face. The figure wore a 19th Century-style banker's suit. Beside him was a much taller figure with close-cut black hair and a finely trimmed beard of black hair peppered by silver whiskers. His moustache was thick and hung over his lips.

At first Harry did not recognize the man at all.

Dumbledore nodded, as if this was the way it should have been. "Mr. Potter, please meet your godfather, Sirius Black."

"Mr Black…" Harry stood, squashing an urge to run to the other man.

Sirius seemed to fighting a similar urge. Instead, he held out a hand. "Hello, Harry. I know you don't remember me, but I was a very good friend to your parents. I was the first person beside your father and mother to hold you. You weed on my beard, if I recall."

Harry didn't bother to hide his smile. "Must have made you stink."

"Well, I'm used to that."

"Mr. Black has arrived with Mr. Rackjaw to discuss your parent's will and your living arrangements," Dumbledore explained.

"Quite right," the goblin said in what for a goblin must have been a polite tone, but what to Harry sounded like an angry bark.

"The reading of the will was held two days ago," Rackjaw continued. "Bequests in the amount of ten thousand galleons were made to Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Dorcas Meadows, and Frank and Alice Longbottom. As Ms. Meadows predeceased the testators, and Frank and Alice Longbottom have been declared permanently incapacitated by spell damage within forty-eight hours of the testator's deaths, their bequests revert back to funds held in trust for you until your twenty-fifth birthday. Upon attaining the age of 17, one quarter of the trust shall be released to you. Upon your twenty-first birthday, a second quarter shall be released to you. Upon your twenty-fifth birthday, the remaining half of the trust shall be released."

"Why those ages?" Harry asked.

"So you don't blow all your money when you're young and stupid," Sirius said with a wink.

"If that were the case, the age should be sixty," the goblin muttered. "Be that as it may, the testators stated that in the event of their death, you were to be entrusted to the care of your godfather, Sirius Black. Other provisions were made in the event of his inability to serve, but those other provisions were made moot when the will was sealed."

At this the goblin glared unabashedly at Dumbledore, who ignored the expression.

Rackjaw looked back down at this notes. "At this time the total Potter Estate is valued at just over one million galleons, with another sixty thousand set aside in a trust vault for your immediate usage. Should you so desire and not wish to leave your descendents anything, you could conceivable live comfortably without working another day for life."

"Sounds boring," Harry said.

"It does," the goblin agreed. "Due to the unusual circumstances involved in the probating of this estate, Gringotts believes sufficient irregularities occurred to warrant a further investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the delay. However, Goblin law requires the victim to formally make a complaint. You are the victim, and our law does not distinguish your age. Do you wish to make a complaint?"

Harry looked back at Dumbledore, who was simply listening with a blank expression. "Can I make a complaint at another time?"

"Goblins do not recognize any statute of limitations while all parties live. Your complaint may be prosecuted at any time until your death or the deaths of those you file against."

Harry looked at Sirius, who grinned and shrugged. He wished for Ginny and Luna, knowing they would be able to give him the right answer. However, they weren't and the goblin obviously wanted an answer. More importantly, he knew that Zeus and Adonis did not want him antagonizing the headmaster just yet. Dumbledore had just suffered a major political loss, but he retained a great deal of power to make Harry's life miserable. "I do not wish to lodge a complaint at this time," Harry said.

"Very well," the goblin said. "The final order of business, then, is to advise you that Mr. Black has formally petitioned the Ministry for custody of you. Because you are past the age of eleven, your view is an important aspect of the hearing." The creature removed two pieces of parchment from his jacket. "The first is an affidavit affirming you wish to remain with your current relatives. The second is an affidavit stating your desire to live with Sirius Black. Please read over both documents and sign the appropriate one. Here is a notary quill."

Harry accepted the charmed quill as he read over the parchments. There was no question in his mind which he would sign, but Luna told him repeatedly not to sign anything he didn't thoroughly read.

The language was simple enough even for a thirteen-year-old, though, and so he signed the affidavit stating his preference to live with his godfather. He handed it back to the goblin, who nodded.

"It is likely the petition will be granted," the Goblin said, "now that you have declared your desires. My work here is done. Thank you all for your time and for your business." With that, Rackjaw disappeared back into the Floo.

"And where will you be staying, Mr. Black?" Dumbledore asked when they were alone.

Black's smile fell quickly away as he turned to face the headmaster. "Someplace safe," he said curtly. "I've placed a Fidelius Charm on it, and this time I made sure the secret keeper is someone I can trust."

"A sound precaution," Dumbledore agreed. "Will you need support of any kind? I understand your mother disowned you?"

Sirius grinned, and Harry saw a predatory gleam there. "She was not the head of the family, despite her claims to the contrary. The Black family is as archaic as any you care to name. Only my father could disown me. And he never did. I got everything when she died. In addition, the Ministry paid me three times my Senior Auror's annual salary for every year of wrongful imprisonment. Like Harry, work for me is optional."

"What are your plans for the holidays, then?"

"My plans are for me and my godson," Sirius said. "They do not concern you."

Dumbledore nodded again and then stood. Something strange happened next. The air around the headmaster seemed to contract, pulling toward him like light caught in a black hole. The whole room shimmered and Harry realized with a start that Dumbledore was showing them all magic. Pure, unadulterated magic, on a scale Harry had never imagined.

Just as quickly, it was gone. "A reminder," Dumbledore said softly. "You cannot fight the war to come, alone. And you do not want me as an enemy."

Black simply nodded. "I know we don't want you as an enemy, Albus. I'm just not sure we can afford you as a friend." He knelt down before Harry. "And I will see you, young man, at Kings Cross Station. Look for me."

"I will," Harry promised.

Sirius leaned forward, and gently enveloped Harry in a hug. "It's going to be better now, Pup," he said into Harry's ear. "For both of us."

"For both of us," Harry agreed. "Thank you, Sirius."

The older man cleared his throat, turned and disappeared in a rush of flames.

"Well, I believe that is that. Thank you for coming, Harry, and if I don't see you, enjoy your holidays."

"Thank you, Headmaster," Harry said, before he turned leave and rejoin his friends.

* * *

**Author's Note**: Very special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and also toMiles for additional beta reading. My third beta, JR, is celebrating his daughter's graduation and travelling.


	21. Summer Hols

Author's Note: Review Responses for Chap 19 can be found in my forums. Thank you for reading.

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**Chapter Twenty-One: Summer Holidays**

"So how was Majorca?" Ginny asked.

"Brilliant," Harry said with a glowing smile. "They have this pastry there called an _ensaimada_ that I think I like more than anything in the world. Sirius and I went swimming in the ocean. I've never seen the ocean before."

"Technically it was a sea, Harry," Hermione said. "And it is beautiful. My family went on holiday in Spain last summer and visited the island. The muggle portion was crowded, but the magical section was wonderful."

"Where else did you go?" Ginny asked Harry.

"France and Germany and across the pond. We went to the top of the Empire State Building and then ate lunch in Toronto ... Just brilliant. My first real holiday."

"Did you get any training done?" Hermione asked.

"Oh yeah," Harry said with a nod for emphasis. "Did you know Sirius used to be a senior Auror? I never knew that. Zeus had him fully inducted and indoctrinated before we left on holiday."

"Hush now, children," Arthur Weasley said from two rows up. They had been whispering among themselves, but the Weasley patriarch's voice loudly cut through the discussion. "The game is about to start."

Harry, Ginny, Luna, Hermione and Ron all settled in to watch from the minister's box. The twins sat behind them, while their father sat near Minister Bones and the Bulgarian Ambassador, who was chatting with her in polite, unaccented English.

Harry smiled back at the Weasley patriarch before turning to Ginny. "I'm glad your father got that promotion."

"It was a surprise," Ginny admitted. "The strange thing is that he wasn't happy at first. He was suddenly promoted from Muggle Affairs to the head of the entire DMLE over Scrimgeour and Kingsley Shacklebolt both, but he seemed sad."

Luna nodded wisely. "Amelia told him things he didn't enjoy hearing," the girl said.

The other studied her. "How do you know that?" Ron asked.

"Why I…"

"I mean, who did you hear that from?" Ron restated quickly.

"Better," Luna said with a nod. "Father was there. Mr. Weasley had to make a difficult choice."

They all understood. It was the reason Shacklebolt wasn't promoted despite being the clearly superior pick. He had to choose to serve either the Ministry, or Albus Dumbledore; Kingsley chose the latter. Once upon a time, the two were interchangeable, but not anymore.

Just then the Leprechaun mascots for the Irish National Team flew by throwing their fake gold. When the Bulgarian Veela made their performance, Ron almost jumped out of the stands, as did the twins. Harry just shrugged and enjoyed the spectacle.

The game when it finally started was exhilarating. Professional Quidditch was twice as fast as the school games, but Ron enjoyed pointing out how many of the Irish team's plays were now part of the Gryffindor playbook.

The Bulgarian team was clearly out matched. The Irish Chasers and Beaters were an awesome sight, moving with a precision beyond anything Harry had ever seen. He tried to picture himself out there flying with equal speed and grace, but it was difficult to do so. He just didn't think of himself as being that good.

Harry's sharp eyes caught sight of the snitch at the same time as the two Seekers, and in this one area the Bulgarians clearly had the advantage. Viktor Krum was not a large man—large men did not become seekers in the professional game. However, he was a powerful flyer. He bullied past the slightly slower Irish seeker and completely dominated the approach to the Snitch. However, he did not catch it immediately.

"What's he doing?" Hermione asked.

"He's waiting for his team to score one more goal. If he catches it right now, Bulgaria will lose!" Ron said. He was almost bouncing in his seat from the excitement of the game.

It looked as if the Bulgarians were on the way to that goal with a perfectly thrown shot. Realizing the Snitch was about to escape, Viktor grabbed it just as the Quaffle should have gone through, but it did not.

An Irish chaser swooped down in a power dive with just enough speed to knock the Quaffle wide just as Viktor caught the Snitch. Viktor Krum caught the snitch, but his team still lost.

Ginny turned to Luna. "So how much did you and your dad make on this match?"

"Over a million galleons," Luna calculated.

Ron and Ginny's eyes both bulged. "Luna, doesn't that seem…well, I don't know…unfair?" Hermione asked.

"Anyone can do their own projections," Luna pointed out. "It is like knowing the odds in any other gambling scenario. We just happened to know the odds sooner than most and in much greater detail, with more confidence. Also, we are still paying for our snorkack hunt this summer. It was expensive."

"Do you know what a snorkack looks like now?" Hermione asked.

"Right now we believe it looks like a green tube of five feet in length that fires an explosive projectile over a great distance," Luna said. "However, that is a preliminary viewing. We'll know more once our order arrives."

Hermione stared at the girl for a long moment; the stare was returned without blinking. Finally giving up, Hermione said, "I'm not sure I even want to know."

Just then Sirius arrived and settled into the seat directly behind them wearing a broad grin. "Harry, Luna, thanks for the tip."

"How'd we do?" Harry asked.

"A good million," Sirius said. "I wasn't quite willing to put the whole family vault on it, but between us I put down fifty thousand."

Hermione huffed loudly while Ron and Ginny stared. "Harry?" Ginny asked. "You bet too?"

"Sure. I had to have some extra money to buy birthday presents for you, right?"

Ginny blushed prettily. "Oh, well, in that case…."

"Fourteen, Harry," Ron said.

"Is that like a mantra with you?" Hermione asked.

"What's a mantra?" Ron asked.

"Something someone of limited intelligence says repeatedly when they have nothing else of value to say," Luna retorted.

"What?" Ron asked.

"I think she insulted you, mate," Harry said.

"Right," Ron muttered.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The holiday Harry and Sirius shared was unlike anything Harry had experienced in his admittedly short life. It was more than just the travel—it was learning how to live with Sirius himself. Harry knew he was in for an interesting experience when, while in Majorca Sirius brought not one, but four different women into their rented flat during their two weeks there. Three were witches, one was a squib. All were young and beautiful.

Harry tried not to pay too much attention, but it was difficult to sleep with the grunting, laughing, and constant rocking sound that would often go well into the night.

In the morning, Harry would cook a breakfast for three and the women—always pretty and only a handful of years older than Harry himself—would blush when they realized there was a young man in the flat with them.

There were plenty of kids Harry's age, but he discovered it was almost physically painful to just walk up to someone he didn't know and start up a conversation, especially when it was with a girl. And there were lots of very attractive young girls wearing some shockingly skimpy bikinis on the beaches of Majorca, if they wore anything at all. This aspect of Harry's personality perplexed Sirius.

"Your father was what we called an icebreaker," Sirius said after a day spent unsuccessfully goading Harry into picking up a girlfriend. "He would walk up to anyone and be their best friend in ten minutes. Except for Snivellus, of course. But when Peter or I needed a date, or Remus was feeling puckish, James would just walk up to a group of girls, introduce himself, and by the end of the night we'd all be best friends."

"Must be nice," Harry said. "So is that how he and mother met?"

"No," Sirius said with a wild laugh, "he charmed her hair purple on the train before first year. By the end of the year when she actually knew some magic, she hit him with a _Densaugeo_ spell that made him look like a big demented rabbit. Funniest thing I ever saw. They despised each other for years."

This was a story Harry had never heard. "So who did Mum hang out with?"

Black's expression darkened. "Snape."

Harry stared at his godfather in shock. "My mum liked _Professor Snape_?"

"Wasn't a ruddy professor then, now, was he? He was a greasy rat bastard of a Slytherin snot who just happened to grow up next to Lily. She knew him even before school. They were good friends up until around fifth or sixth year. Then James pulled a good prank on Snivellus after Snape sabotaged our potions and hung him upside down so everyone could see his bloomers. Lily tried to stop it, but Snape called her a Mudblood and that was the end of that. It changed everything."

"What do you mean?"

"Your mum was really good at potions. She was one of old Slughorn's darlings. Snape was the other. I think Snape always thought that Lily would be his. I…I despise the man, but even I could see how much it hurt him when she walked away. James saw it too; he also saw how much it hurt Lily. He changed after that. They started spending all their time together. Heck, the summer before and after they graduated Remus and I didn't see them at all. Next thing I know, they're flowing through the Auror program and are leaders in the DMLE. Then came the damned prophecy and they had to go into hiding."

The prophecy. Something else they had discovered since Sirius's release. It would have been terrifying in its content if Adonis had not already told Harry about it.

"You know that Mum and Dad were in the Program, don't you?" Harry asked.

Sirius scratched as his trim beard. "Don't remind me. It does make sense though. James and Lily were the finest pair of fighters I ever saw, and only Frank and Alice came close. The Prewett twins weren't too bad either, but James and Lily were awe-inspiring. Neither had Voldemort's power, but their dueling skill and timing was just so good that he couldn't really beat them; not without taking out his own people too. So they and Frank and Alice were able to hold off direct attacks three separate times, more than anyone else save Dumbledore himself."

"And look where it got them," Harry said.

Sirius thought about that for a moment, but then changed the subject "So, back to the topic at hand. Why haven't you brought any pretty girls back to the flat?"

Harry shrugged, and then realized it wasn't just because he was shy. In fact, it felt almost like an epiphany—a realization that shifted his perceptions completely. He smiled at his Godfather and said, "They aren't Ginny."

Sirius blinked at Harry. "She would never know.'

"I would. It's that kind of thinking that got you in trouble with Minister Bones."

Serious actually managed to look embarrassed for a moment, before grinning. "What if one of them was Luna?"

"Wouldn't matter."

"You don't like her?"

"I do. But she couldn't say no."

Sirius still wasn't entirely sure about the odd relationship Harry, Ginny and Luna shared. "What do you mean? I'd love to find a girl who couldn't say no."

Harry shook his head. "Sirius, you don't understand. If I asked Luna to cut her wrist and allow herself to bleed to death, she would. She doesn't know right from wrong. She was hurt by the spell that killed her Mum. She…she's a little brain damaged, I guess you'd say. She's brilliant, but she can't tell right from wrong. So Ginny and I are like her anchors. She calls us her frame of reference. Instead of asking herself if something is right or wrong, she asks herself what I or Ginny would do. And that's how she interacts with people around her. I'm not saying that I won't ever do anything with her—but not just the two of us. Ginny will always be first for me."

"Well, the Weaslette's a beautiful girl, I'll give you that," Sirius said. "Not sure I understand why you'd want to be stuck with just the one. Especially at your age. You're going to be fourteen soon, after all."

"If you could go back to Amelia Bones, would you still think that?"

Sirius blinked. "Don't know," he admitted. "And that's twice you brought up Amalia. No more, okay?"

Harry discovered that Sirius was in many ways a child himself. He could be deathly serious when in a dangerous situation, but socially he acted like a college boy more than like a newly reappointed senior Auror and even more newly indoctrinated Unspeakable.

Harry knew the reason behind this. In a real way, Sirius's life was put on hold for twelve years. Now that he emerged from prison, he was determined to enjoy his life. And since wizards easily averaged a century or more of life, he still had plenty of time to live.

So their holiday went. Sirius had just as much fun as Harry, and more in some ways since he was sure to extensively sample the local bikini-clad fauna wherever they went. The beaches of France were an eye-opening experience for Harry, but Sirius acted like a man in heaven.

Somehow, every day, they also got in a solid two hours of magical dueling. Sirius told Harry point blank the exercise was for both of them since Sirius was rusty as well. That first session was the only time Harry even got close to besting him. The next session, even when obviously hung over, Sirius took Harry out in three spells.

By the end of their holiday, though, it was taking Sirius close to five minutes to take Harry out, and more than once Harry got a few good shots in himself. It was truly the happiest stretch of life Harry had ever experienced.

All things end, though, for good or bad. England beckoned, and so they caught an international portkey out of Seattle and returned home to jolly old England. They had moved into the Black ancestral home in London. Grimmauld Place was a dark, dreary house, but Harry didn't care because it was home—his home, which he shared with his godfather. The two stocked up on food and supplies, and spent the week after their return cleaning the house.

Harry suspected that if Mrs. Weasley had been there, she would have tried to insist that they clean the house by hand, rather than using magic. Sirius would have none of that, and without a trace on his wand, there was no reason for Harry to hold back either. The two tackled the house room by room, combining their power to perform permanent transfiguration on the abhorrent draperies that shrouded each window.

They banished the darkly floral wall paper down to the plaster beneath before the two began throwing color charms around. First were the small parlor, then the living room, then the kitchen. The first night there they actually slept in the living room because Sirius didn't trust the rest of the house.

On the second day they started on the stairs to the accompaniment of Sirius's banshee of a mother. They tried every spell they could to remove the picture frame from the wall until Harry finally asked, "Is this a load bearing wall?"

"Let's find out," Sirius said with a grin.

"Don't you dare!" Mrs. Black screeched.

Half an hour later, nothing of the wall remained but the brickwork, and Mrs. Black's painting was no more. "Never did like that woman," Sirius said.

Harry nodded wisely at the pain in his godfather's voice. "I know."

"Bet you do," Sirius said. "So, let's get a bedroom done. Banish all magical objects to the parlor and we'll look at them later."

With the use of magic, the majority of the living areas were completely done, and a huge pile of dark artifacts were stacked into boxes in the parlor. Harry noticed a locket with the stylistic _S_, but had no reason to think it any more significant than any other.

"What should we do with all this stuff?" Harry finally asked.

"We're giving it to Zeus to categorize and then, if necessary, to destroy," Black said. He looked appraisingly at Harry. "You know the Black family hasn't been that nice recently. It wasn't always that way. We're actually cousins, you and I. All the old pure-blood families are related. But starting with my grandfather during Grindelwald's days, the family just went insane. I hated it so much, and they all hated me too. All of them but Regulus."

Harry looked back at the box filled with elf heads. The last one was an ancient head that still had no dust. "Was that Kreacher?" he asked, having heard his godfather complain about the elf after he first returned to this house from prison.

"Yeah, asked to kill himself. Miserable old thing. I gave him permission. That reminds me, we might want to consider getting a house-elf. Can't see two bachelors keeping this place clean all the time."

"Adonis said he knew of an elf that might be available. We'll ask him about it."

"Right, now, let's go shopping. We both need to get some more clothes, some food and supplies; we can also knock out your school shopping. Plus, we need a tent."

"A tent? What for?"

"You'll see."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

And saw he did. The tent Sirius bought was so luxurious they decided to just camp out at the World Cup site for two nights before the game. The Irish were already there en masse and were throwing rowdy parties which Sirius did not hesitate to join. Harry was essentially dragged along.

More than once a young Irish witch would start looking at Harry in speculation, eying his infamous scar. Sirius would always notice and urge Harry to go talk to her, but the young teen again found himself comparing all the girls to Ginny. Some might have been prettier, some were much more developed, but none quite had her smile or the playful glint in their eyes.

Relief finally came in the form of the Weasleys and Lovegoods. Hermione tagged along with Ron, lugging her backpack like the rest. Also joining them was the Diggory family. Harry greeted Cedric warmly—he admired the Hufflepuff seeker not just for being a great player, but for being an excellent student. He was going to be Head Boy for sure when he reached Seventh Year.

"Harry Potter!" Amos Diggory said in obvious delight as he took Harry's hand with enthusiasm. "Cedric has told me about you. You're a bit taller than I thought, though."

"Good food," Sirius said.

Amos straightened a little, and then offered his hand with a nod. "Mr. Black, Amos Diggory. I'm sad to say I'm one of those who believed the official line concerning you, but I'm glad to see I was wrong. Young Mr. Potter is obviously doing quite well with you."

"Thank you, Mr. Diggory."

"What are you doing with yourself?"

"I've decided to return to the DMLE. Amelia runs a far different shop than Fudge."

Amos actually seemed to sigh in relief. "Yes. Yes she does. It's the first time in many years that I've been proud to go to work. Well, it was smashing to meet you two. Arthur, kids, thank you for letting us tag along. Enjoy the game!"

The game was brilliant as always, and not just because of the obscene money they made on bets. It was just a joy to watch. The pitch itself was amazing, so unlike the small pitch at the school.

Afterward, the whole group of them gathered at Sirius and Harry's tent where they were grilling bangers and steaks. Butterbeer flowed freely.

As everyone else was enjoying themselves, Harry settled down on a log by the bonfire, listening with a smile as Sirius Black told stories of the Marauders. He grinned as Ginny sat beside him, and then laughed when Luna took his other side.

"So, find any cute girls to snog?" Ginny asked as soon as they settled.

"Found lots of cute girls," Harry admitted, "but didn't snog any of them."

"Why ever not?"

"Because they weren't you," Harry said. His smile dipped, but not out of sadness. He was looking into her eyes and let a little bit of his seriousness show.

"That's silly, Harry," Ginny said with a beautiful blush. "We're just kids. I'm not even allowed to date yet."

"And we're not allowed to use magic out of school," Luna said. "Or practice the spells we know. Or kill…"

"We get it, Luna," Ginny said.

Luna shrugged. "Just pointing out that we operate by a different set of rules."

"So you're saying Harry and I should date?"

Luna leaned forward and studied the two intently. "I'm saying Father put you together because it was likely you would anyway. Why put off the inevitable?"

Harry grinned and shook his head. "Only you would look at it like that ... And what about you, Luna? What do you want?"

"To be with the two of you," she said. "It's all I want and all I need: To be with you, in any capacity that you need me to be."

They were speaking very quietly while Sirius spoke, but Ron and Hermione were close by. Though Ron was oblivious, Hermione heard a little of what Luna said. She turned to look at Ron, who was eating a banger wrapped in bread and listening raptly to Sirius. Absently, she reached up with a cloth and wiped a bit of grease from the corner of the redhead's mouth.

"Thanks," Ron said absently before turning back to the story.

She acknowledged his thanks with a smile before settling in for the rest of the story.

* * *

sp

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and also to JR and Miles for additional beta reading. As always the three of them made this a better chapter.


	22. Baiting Death Eaters

Review responses for Chapter 21 are available in my forums. Thank you for reading.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Two: Baiting Death Eaters**

The post-game party was still going strong when the first scream echoed across the field of tents.

Harry's eyes popped open, though he did not at first understand why he was awake. He remembered a few butterbeers and a warm feeling of contentment as he sat between Ginny and Luna by the fire. Somehow, sitting between the two younger girls, he felt safe and at peace.

After Luna and her father left, the feeling of contentment turned to a feeling of drowsiness. With a smile and a squeeze of Ginny's hand, Harry told friends and family he was going to turn in. Hermione then asked for his help in carrying the already passed out Ron into the tent room the boys would share.

Hermione gave Harry a hug and a peck on the cheek after they got Ron settled. "Thank you for being here with us," she whispered to her friend before she joined Ginny in the girl's room. Luna and her father went home.

He did not even know how long ago that was, but it could not have been that long, since the party sounded like it was still going.

He sat up groggily in his bed and saw Ron in the bed next to him. Around them the walls of the tent billowed in an evening breeze. That's when he heard another scream, followed a split-second later by Arthur Weasley, looking disheveled and wild-eyed as he ran into the room. "Ron, Harry, wake up!"

Ron snorted and opened bleary eyes. "What, Dad?"

"Get up, boys, we need to leave!" Mr. Weasley urged.

"What's happening?" Harry asked as he strapped on his wrist wand-holster.

Arthur stared at the holster for a moment before meeting Harry's eyes. "There's an attack," he finally said. "We don't know who."

Harry and Ron shared a long look before they rushed into the central area of the tent. They found Sirius already there with his wand ready, while the twins hastily threw their things into the bag. It was an impromptu decision to have the Weasleys and Hermione join Harry and Sirius in their tent, but now everyone was glad they were all together.

Just then Hermione and Ginny wandered out of the room they shared. Harry noted that Ginny had her wand strapped to her wrist just like him, and didn't doubt that her back-up wand was somewhere close at hand as well.

"Everyone accounted for?" Sirius demanded.

Arthur did a quick head count. "Everyone's here."

"Then let's go," Sirius said.

They walked out of the tent into sheer pandemonium. Witches and wizards were rushing about screaming mindlessly. Sirius shook his head in disgust before turning and causing the tent to fold in on itself until it was barely the size of a woman's purse with a mere flick of his wand. He gathered the tent and slipped it into his robe.

"Alright, everyone, stay together," Sirius said. "We're going into the woods and then we'll take a portkey."

That's when the unimaginable happened. A dark green spell flew by them and struck one of the screaming witches who was running nearby. Harry was not more than ten feet away when it struck her in the chest with sufficient power to flip her onto her back with her feet flying right out from under her. She looked young, no more than twenty or so.

Harry stared down at her open, sightless eyes and understood instinctively that she was dead before she even hit the ground.

"Killing curse!" Sirius roared. "Everyone get down!"

Harry ducked down and turned to where the curse came from. When his eyes caught sight of the figures in the black robes with the black pointed hoods and silver masks, he thought his heart would stop. These wizards were dressed just like Adonis described the first generation of Death Eaters.

Above the line of black robes hung the limp bodies of the two Muggles whose land the tournament was housed on. Even through the smoke of the fires and spells, he could see the open, empty eyes of the old couple. The eyes were just like those of the young witch Harry watched die. It wasn't bad enough that they were dead—the Death Eaters were using their bodies as a sick and twisted standard.

"Sirius, we can't stay here!" Arthur yelled. "The kids!"

"Take them and go," Sirius snapped back to the man who was essentially his boss.

Arthur began herding the kids toward the wood. As they joined their siblings and friends, Harry and Ginny shared a long glance. Behind them, Sirius began trading spell-fire with the solid line of twelve or so Death Eaters: one man against a dozen.

There was no outward communication—the two simply came to the same conclusion at the same time based on over two years of intensive training together. They hung back from the rest of the Weasleys. Arthur, fighting against the crush of terrified people, never had a chance to find them or even notice they were missing.

The two snuck around other tents from where Sirius was forced to retreat to before the onslaught. Of the thousands of witches and wizards there, Sirius was the only one bothering to fight back.

When the line of dark wizards moved past Harry and Ginny, concentrating on Sirius, the two young teens jumped out behind them. "_Expelliarmus_!" they said together. Neither yelled their spell—two years of training had taught them to cast as quietly as possible, and so the sound of the casting was lost in the chaos of the moment. The red hexes caught the two rear-most Death Eaters completely by surprise. Their wands came flying back toward Harry and Ginny, who snatched and then snapped them quickly.

This caught the attention of the ten remaining Death Eaters, who spun about to attack. This was a mistake. Behind the diverted dark wizards, Sirius grinned at the turn of events and launched an overpowered blasting hex directly into the group.

Harry and Ginny had already rolled away in opposite directions from the barrage of curses when the blast hit. Two of the dark wizards flew into the air only to land in four pieces, while the remaining eight were tossed from their feet.

Harry and Ginny recovered from their opposite rolls at the same time and again fired disarming hexes at the Death Eaters, recovering and snapping two more wands while Sirius fired bludgeoning and cutting curses at the dark wizards with abandon. Blood sprayed into the air as the senior Auror let loose with a fusillade of deadly magic.

Three of the men stumbled to their feet and disappeared with a twisting motion.

"Disapparation?" Harry asked.

"Don't think so," Ginny said. "Looked more like portkeys."

A moment later a line of men in crimson robes appeared, "Aurors! Get your wands up!"

"Kingsley, its Black you dolt," Sirius said. "Arthur was getting the rest of his family away. I've disabled or captured seven of the assailants."

The moment Sirius said "I" Harry slipped his wand back into his holster. Ginny, eyes widening, did the same. The Aurors surrounded the downed men. "Wow," Kingsley said when he saw their condition. "Four snapped wands and at least two men dead. You did this by yourself?"

"They were threatening my godson and Arthur's daughter," Sirius said. "Couldn't have that, now could we?"

Kingsley looked at the two teens. "Ginny, where's your father?"

"We got separated by the crowd," Ginny lied flawlessly. "So we decided to stay close to Mr. Black."

"Good thing," Kingsley said. "Come on men, let's start the clean up. Starting with this trash."

"Do we have a body count?" Sirius asked as the other Aurors began unmasking the Death Eaters. None of the faces appeared remarkable.

"Not definitely, but at least six people are dead," Kingsley said sadly. "This was a disaster."

"No, it would have been a disaster if they got away," Sirius said. "But we caught all but three of the bastards, so we can have a trial and get some justice for the dead."

Kingsley nodded. "Maybe they can tell us what was going on."

"I'm going to get these two home," Sirius said. "I'll be in the office tomorrow to give my official report.

"That's fine. Good work, Sirius." Kingsley smiled weakly. "It's really good to see you back on the force."

"It's good to be back," Sirius said with intentional levity. He then gathered Harry and Ginny by their shoulders and walked them away from the scene of the crime.

Only when they were safely out of earshot did he say, "If it weren't for the fact you probably saved my life, I'd be really upset with the two of you."

Harry shrugged. "We've been training for two years. What is it for if not to protect ourselves and our family?"

Sirius missed a step when Harry said "family" but recovered quickly. "Quite right. And I'll give you this—you handled it perfectly. Stunners are too easy to counter…"

"So try to disarm or kill outright," Ginny quoted back. "We knew this wasn't a fight we could kill in. So we tried to disarm them to give you a window to strike back."

"Yes, and you both did brilliantly," Sirius conceded. "So, as far as Arthur and the Ministry are concerned, I am a bloody-brilliant hero."

"You are," Harry said with passion. "You were the only one to try fighting back at all, and you held off a full dozen of them. Not many people can do that."

"True, I am brilliant," Sirius said without a trace of modesty. "Look, there's Arthur!"

The Weasley patriarch was visibly going insane looking, and calling out, for Ginny and Harry. When he finally spotted the trio moving toward the trees under the light of torches, he wilted in relief. Then he got angry.

"Ginny, Harry, what were you thinking!"

"They got separated by the crowd, Arthur," Sirius explained smoothly. "They realized they wouldn't be able to find you, so they decided to stay close enough to see me but far enough away to avoid the fighting. Frankly I think they were brilliant. They made a good decision calmly."

Arthur nodded, brightening a little. "Yes, yes of course. Thank you, Sirius. Ginny, Harry that was good thinking. Are you both all right?"

"We're fine," Ginny assured her father.

Arthur hugged both Ginny and Harry as if to ensure she was telling the truth, and only then appeared ready to move on. "Well, very well then. Sirius, fancy coming back to the Burrow?"

"All things considered, I think Harry and I will just kip back to the Doghouse. You're welcome to join."

"Thanks, but after this night I'm ready to go home."

"Understood. We'll see you all at Kings Cross in two days, then!"

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The story made the front pages of the _Quibbler_ and the _Daily Prophet_. Sirius Black was heralded as a hero for confronting the dark wizards. While the three that escaped were not named, another nine were killed or captured. Among those killed were Alfred Goyle, and Sadelius Crabbe.

Harry found himself staring at the two names the next morning with a strange mix of emotions.

Zeus was already at Grimmauld Place with Adonis, debriefing Sirius. Luna made her way into the kitchen where she found Harry reading the paper.

"You have seen that Crabbe's and Goyle's fathers are dead," she said without preamble. She sat down at the table next to him.

"Yeah,"

"What are you feeling?"

From anyone else, the question would be interpreted as concern. From Luna, it was simply curiosity. She wanted to understand what he felt upon learning of the deaths of two classmates' fathers so she could adapt that knowledge to her own behavior.

"I'm thinking that Crabbe and Goyle are fourteen years old, and they lost their fathers because of me."

"How so?"

"Ginny and I provided the distraction that allowed Sirius to kill them."

"So are you upset that the elder Crabbe and Goyle are dead, or that the younger Crabbe and Goyle suffer because of those deaths?"

"For the younger ones, I guess. I mean, I know they're just bullies, but they still lost their dads. I don't know what I'd do if I lost Sirius."

"And you would have lost him had you not done what you did."

"I know that," Harry admitted. "It doesn't make it feel any better."

"Then you need something to distract you. For instance, since you last saw me nude, I have developed twice as much pubic hair and my breasts have increased in size by twenty-five percent. My nipples are quite sprightly when I compare them to the pictures of naked Muggles I have. Although you must look closely for the pubic hair as it is quite fine and blonde. Would you like to see?"

Harry choked on spit and started coughing violently. Luna solicitously patted his back until the fit was over. "I…thanks, Luna, but maybe you should keep your clothes on."

"Oh course," she said.

"That was quite a distraction."

"Perhaps. You realize that Molly Weasley wears a size D cup? Ginny already has twice what I do. She will be quite well developed when she grows up."

Harry fought hard to not choke. "Luna, why do you always bring up your bodies?"

She shrugged. "Sexuality is fascinating to me. I know that the emotional aspect of it is beyond me, but the biological aspect of it is quite fascination. Did you know that Muggles have done extensive studies of sexuality, and how the body responds? You think of emotions and bonds. I think of chemical reactions. In a very real sense sex is the ultimate biological drive. Our bodies are designed in large part to procreate and create future generations. For instance, why is it that human males do not have a penile bone while most other mammals do?"

Harry's eyes bulged out almost to the back of his glasses. "What…"

"Very unusual for a mammal to have a completely hydraulic sexual organ. For it to work, males must be aroused, which means that your brain has been wired in evolutionary terms to enjoy a heightened arousal and experience from sexual intercourse. What is in essence a rather messy biological exchange of genetic material therefore becomes a long, emotionally-charged, sensory overload that drives almost all social interactions. It is truly remarkable."

After a moment, Harry shook his head. "Luna, that was better than a cold shower."

She blinked. "That means you do not wish to have intercourse with me?"

"Er, not right now."

She nodded, and then gave a perfectly fake but smooth smile. "Of course, you should have intercourse with Ginny first. When you do, please let me know. I would very much like to watch how the blood flow affects skin pigmentation during orgasm."

"Ahhh, sure, okay."

She settled back and stared at him intently for a full uninterrupted sixty seconds. "Well?" she said. "How do you feel about Crabbe and Goyle?"

"Distracted," Harry admitted.

"Then my work here is done," she said with a firm nod. She stood and walked out of the room with a flick of her long blonde hair. Before she did, though, she paused. "Harry, if you do ever wish to experiment, I would be willing. Not because I cannot say no, but because I think it would be an interesting experience."

"We're awfully young," Harry said, even while his imagination took off a million miles an hour. He could see very clearly what her body looked like at the end of last term in his memory, but the memory of her blood shook the vision out of his mind quickly. "I…I won't say never, because I don't know what the future will bring and I do care for you a great deal. I just don't want to rush into something like that."

"Very well," she said with a nod. "I'm sure Sirius and father will be relieved to hear you say that."

"And you?"

"I can wait. I have discovered a quite satisfactory masturbation charm. I think I shall show it to Ginny this term."

She turned and walked out at last while Harry fought back another coughing fit.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The next day dawned warm and muggy. Sirius took Harry in a side-along apparition directly to the apparition point at the station. He disappeared and returned a moment later with Harry's trunk. Hedwig was already flying toward the castle.

They emerged onto the platform to find Hermione already there with her parents, saying their good-byes. Luna was most likely already on the train, while the Weasleys would arrive with just minutes to spare.

Hermione's eyes lit up when she saw Harry. "Mum, Dad! Look, its Harry."

"Merlin, Harry, how many girls do you have on your sleeve?" Sirius whispered.

"She's not on my sleeve," he said. "She's just a good friend."

"Uh-huh. I'm starting to rethink my opinion of you, Harry. You don't need to be an icebreaker—you have your own little coven already." Then Sirius put on his grown-up face to meet Hermione's parents, Edwin and Calliope.

"So an Auror is like a magical Bobby, then?" Edwin was asking as Sirius explained his crimson robes.

"A closer analogy would be a detective with the Metropolitan Police," Sirius said. "Normal law enforcement is handled by what we call hitwizards. Aurors are more specifically dedicated to hunting down and capturing dark wizards and creatures."

"Is there a lot of that sort of thing?" Calliope asked.

"No more than in your world," Sirius said. "In fact, the new Minister of Magic is actually working with the Met to set up a joint training program for Aurors. We can't use magic when we're there, or discuss it, but it will give us a chance to learn your law enforcement techniques and maybe even apply those techniques to our own."

Harry grinned. "Wow, Sirius, you used a lot of big words! I'm so proud."

Hermione stared in shock at Harry's casual mocking, only to have the shock compounded when Sirius said, "Quiet, you, or we'll talk about what happened in Majorca."

"But that was your fault," Harry said.

Sirius shrugged, "Your call."

Harry sealed his lips and shrugged as if to say, "Sorry, out of my control."

"Well, it was a pleasure to meet you," Edwin said, smiling at the exchange. "And you, Harry. Hermione has told us so much about you; it's nice to finally see the real person."

"A pleasure, Mr. and Mrs. Granger. Hermione is an extraordinary witch. I'm honoured to count her as a friend."

Hermione preened a little as her parents gave her a final parting hug and left. The three continued through the Muggle-proofed barrier.

"So you two really bonded over the holidays," she noted once they made it to the side of the Express. "I'm really glad."

"It was a good holiday," Harry said.

"Well, hopefully you'll have some memories to keep you through the year," Sirius said. "Next summer we'll pick up right where we left off."

"Can't wait," Harry said.

Sirius gave his godson a quick, awkward hug, waved at Hermione, and walked away.

"So what happened at Majorca?" Hermione asked.

"Absolutely nothing," Harry said with an honest smile.

* * *

sp

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and also to JR and Miles for additional beta reading. As always the three of them made this a better chapter.


	23. TriWizard Turmoil

Chapter 22 Review Responses are available in my forums. Thank you.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Three: Triwizard Turmoil**

He couldn't say what drove him, but after the train started moving, Harry went in search of Crabbe and Goyle. He had no idea what he would say or why, but he had a need to see them.

He found them with the other Fourth Year Slytherins, of course. Pansy was in the same cabin, with Nott, Davis and Greengrass. They were talking softly amongst themselves. Harry lingered just outside the door, looking in at the drawn, exhausted expressions of the two boys. He did not like them at all, but he saw genuine pain and loss in their faces.

"Come to gloat, Potter?" a voice spat behind him.

Harry turned and looked at Draco. The young boy had his wand out and pointed right at Harry.

He shook his head. "No. I wanted to check on them, see if they were okay. It looks like they're surrounded by friends so there's no need for me to go in there."

"Oh, you should!" Draco said loudly, ensuring everyone around them could hear. "I think you should come in and ask Crabbe and Goyle how they are doing. Please, allow me!"

He opened the door to the cabin and the other Slytherins looked up in surprise. "Boys!" Draco said with a feigned air of excitement, "Guess who came for a visit? Why look, it's Harry Potter! Doesn't that make you feel better?"

"Stop it, Draco," Greengrass said.

"I didn't come to fight," Harry said softly. He looked at the two larger boys. "I lost my parents. I know what it's like. I guess…I guess I came to say I'm sorry."

"Ohhhh that makes it all better then, doesn't it?" Draco crowed. "Why, just come in and say you're sorry that your blood traitor godfather killed their fathers! Or that you put my father in Azkaban."

"No," Harry said, surprising himself and the others by the steel in his voice. "I'm not sorry Sirius killed them. They wore stupid masks and were killing innocent people. I watched them kill a young witch just a few years older than Daphne there right before my eyes. They all deserved to die. Just like any who support them."

The cabin went very, very quiet. In that silence, Harry turned to the two boys. "But you two didn't deserve to have to lose your fathers. I'm not sorry they died. But I am sorry for your loss."

"Get out, you bastard," Draco hissed.

"Yes, I should go," Harry agreed. He paused as he turned, and looked back into the cabin. "You should know that if Voldemort does come back, we won't play around this time. Minister Bones won't toss about stunners and throw Death Eaters in jail. The light side will hunt them down like the dogs they are and kill them on sight. Voldemort may return, but he'll find his army gone. I hope you remember that ... Because someday, I'm going to be one of those hunters. And if I ever find any of you with a dark mark on your arm, I will kill you. I'll feel bad about it, but you'll still be dead."

With that, Harry turned and left the cabin. He felt no better than before, and questioned why he went in the first place.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

After another brilliant feast, the Headmaster stood and announced enthusiastically that there would be no Quidditch that year because Hogwarts was to host the Tri-Wizard tournament. The whole school cheered with excitement, except for two Gryffindors.

Ron looked at Harry, pale as if facing a Dementor, and said, "No Quidditch?"

Harry, though, was even more confused. Why didn't Zeus tell him?

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

After many conversations with both Luna and Ginny, and even a hurried Floo call with Adonis from the Shrieking Shack's secured Floo connexion, Harry, Hermione and Ron came to the inescapable conclusion that Alastor Moody was absolutely, positively nutters. They also discovered that Zeus and Adonis never new about the tournament because Scrimgeour specifically kept the whole affair private from the DOM and even Amelia Bones, much to her ire and the DOM's consternation.

Totally aside from the fact that Moody looked as if he'd been thrown into a pit of fighting Kneazles, the man transfigured Malfoy into a ferret on the first day of class! Granted, it probably saved Harry from being hexed in the back, but still, Harry had never seen McGonagall turn that particular shade before.

The demonstration of the Unforgivable curses was truly nerve shattering, especially considering what Harry saw after the Quidditch World Cup. It was disturbing enough to him that, after disembarking the train, he was able to see Thestrals for the first time. Thank Merlin Luna was with him. Ginny was equally disturbed, but the two just held hands and did their best to ignore the frightening-looking creatures.

The final straw was the day before the other schools were to arrive for the tournament, when Moody cast the Imperius Curse on all students of all years. Harry was terrified for Luna, but from what Ginny said all he made the third-year girl do was a little dance. The professor made Ginny act like an orangutan because of her orange-red hair.

Oddly enough, the _Imperius_ curse didn't work on Harry. Moody tried again and again, but Harry was able to resist it. "Very good, boy!" Moody said with his over-excited snarl. "Some people can resist it on their own, but they're few and far between! You must have CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

Absolutely nutters.

Harry never noticed the speculative glances that Dumbledore gave him at dinner the evening after Alastor reported the boy's resistance.

Luna did, though.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The other schools arrived on a cool, clear evening near the end of October. Harry watched with his friends as the winged horses brought the Beauxbatons carriage, and a ghostly ship brought the Durmstrang students. The Beauxbatons students all looked beautiful, even the boys. The Durmstrang students were nothing but boys, and didn't look particularly friendly.

"Harry!" Ron squeaked. "Look, it's Viktor Krum!"

"He's still in school?" Harry asked in genuine surprise. "I thought he was a professional player?"

"He's a seventh year," Hermione said.

"He'll definitely be the Durmstrang champion!" Ron said.

Then Ron caught a look at one of the Beauxbatons students and seemed to melt. "Wow," he breathed.

Harry followed his gaze to a tall, statuesque girl with Malfoy-blonde hair and smooth, gentle features in a perfectly round face. "Er, nice enough, I suppose.'

"She's beautiful," Ron breathed.

Ginny elbowed Harry and made a point of looking up and down the table. Harry did so and realized most of the other boys were also staring with adoration at the tall French witch.

"Veela," Ginny whispered.

"Okay."

She stared at him for a moment. "Why aren't you affected?"

"I prefer red-heads."

She blushed brilliantly, then leaned over and kissed his cheek. "You're very sweet, Harry."

He grinned. "One more year, and I can date you."

"And what makes you think I'll say yes?" Ginny asked archly.

"Luna will make you?" Harry said, smiling.

She slumped. "Yeah, she probably would." The fake frown turned to a brilliant grin. "I'm a third year now, though. So you can take me to Hogsmeade."

Ron broke himself out of his Veela-induced trance. "Harry, you can't take Ginny to Hogsmeade until she's fourteen."

"Fine," Ginny snarled. "I'll go with Luna and just happen to run into him!"

"Ron," Hermione said, "we can all go together. This is Harry. He's not going to hurt her."

Ron grunted and returned to staring at the Veela. Hermione rolled her eyes in irritation and picked at her food.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The next day the whole student body, along with their guests, gathered in the Great Hall to witness the selection of the Champions. The cup spit out the expected names—Fleur Delacour for Beauxbatons, and Viktor Krum for Durmstrang. When Cedric Diggory's name was pulled Harry cheered along with all the others. He thoroughly liked his fellow seeker.

He was getting ready to go back to the dorms when the cup flared one last time. He and the rest froze in place at the unexpected development. Dumbledore spun around, startled and visibly nonplussed, when a fourth piece of parchment erupted. He caught it and stared in open shock before calling out, "Harry Potter!"

Everyone at the Gryffindor turned to stare at the horrified fourth-year.

"Harry Potter!" Dumbledore cried.

"You'd better go," Ginny said softly.

"But I didn't enter!" Harry said loudly.

"I don't think it matters," Hermione said apologetically.

Stunned, Harry stood and walked toward the now furious headmaster. Dumbledore silently pointed toward the side atrium where the other champions waited. He entered the room where the other champions waited.

"Harry? Is it time for us to go?" Cedric asked.

Harry numbly shook his head and stumbled over to the fire. Moments later, Dumbledore and the heads of the two other schools came marching in. The Hogwarts Headmaster rushed to the young Gryffindor. Withotu preamble, he said, "Did you do it?"

"No!" Harry said. "If the twins couldn't get through the age line, do you think I could?"

Dumbledore stared directly into Harry's eyes and Harry made no effort to hide the last month's memories since they contained no secret training. He did not try to raise his still fledgling Occlumency shields.

"Very well," Dumbledore said. Just then the other judges and Ministry officials arrived.

Cedric wandered over to Harry. "What's going on?"

"Someone's trying to kill me again," Harry muttered.

"What?"

"Someone entered my name and made the cup select me too."

"Zat is impossible!" the French witch said, overhearing.

Harry stared at her for a long time before he shrugged. "Since it happened, it's not impossible."

"You are lying, leetle boy," she said.

"Sure I am. Because no one has ever tried killing me. Not Dark Lords or Death Eaters. Nope, I have to be lying."

"This is Harry Potter, Ms. Delacour," Cedric said, coming to the defense of a classmate he enjoyed playing against on the Quidditch pitch.

The witch's eyes travelled automatically to Harry's scar. "Makes no difference," she decided. "'Ee wants _eeternal_ glory."

"What eternal glory?" Harry asked. "I've never even heard of this tournament before. Can any of you name a previous champion? How's that supposed to be eternal glory?"

That shut the witch up while the adults continued to discuss the situation. Finally, it was the recently demoted Rufus Scrimgeour who said, "I'm sorry, but the rules are very clear. The selection of a name represents a binding magical contract. Whether or not he put his name in, the writing was in his hand. Mr. Potter must compete."

"Great," Harry said as he slumped. "Just great."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The school was divided in the following weeks over whether to believe Harry or not. Despite the adventures in his first year, Harry's second and third year had been relatively quiet, at least as far as the rest of the school knew. He was generally liked exactly because he was quiet. The fact that he spent almost all his free time training with Unspeakable agents was fortunately not common knowledge. He was an excellent Quidditch player, and so the Gryffindors all supported him. Especially after Ginny had a public row with three seventh year Hufflepuff girls twice her size who were bad-mouthing him, and ended up cowing all three into silence.

Cedric made a point of telling his fellow Badgers that it wasn't Harry's fault, though there was still some resentment because of the thought of the Hufflepuff's losing some of the attention generated by the tournament.

The Ravenclaws and Slytherins were unilaterally against Harry. The fact that Luna supported Harry just made the rest of her fellow 'Claws that much more passionate in their opposition. It was Draco who came up with the Harry Stinks/Support Cedric badges. However, it was Ginny who suggested Harry wear one too.

That gave most of his classmates something to think about. Harry just shrugged and said, "Cedric is the real Hogwarts champion, so of course I support him."

Things started to settle down as life went on. It did take quite a bit of convincing before Ron believed Harry didn't enter his name, until finally Ginny had words with him. By words, that is to say she kicked his shin repeatedly until he believed her. That was a typical Weasley conversation anyway, and it worked well enough.

Harry began to believe things were going to get back to normal when late in the second week of November he turned a corner while trying to make it to Runes on time and ran smack-dab into Goyle and Crabbe; Draco walked a step behind.

"Sorry," Harry muttered as bounced back off the much larger boys.

"Sure you are," Goyle said. It was the first time Harry had ever heard the boy speak. He leaned forward. "I know what you did."

Harry blinked. "I did a lot of stuff. What are you talking about?"

"You and that Weaslette traitor attacked them," Goyle snarled. "You're the reason my father's dead."

Perhaps because of the threat he saw in the boy's face, Harry's brain began working faster than normal. What he concluded was that the only people who could possibly have known he and Ginny were involved were Sirius, and the three Death Eaters who escaped.

Harry took a step back to give him space to act if necessary. "No, Goyle, your father's dead because he chose to put on a mask and kill innocent people."

Just then Hermione and Ron came around the corner to join Harry for class and immediately saw the impending confrontation. Goyle, never the most magically proficient user, did not even try to go for his wand. He threw a large meaty fist at Harry's face.

Even after two years of training, Harry was far from being an expert fighter. However, he was much, much faster than the Slytherin and was far from a beginner. He ducked below the clumsily thrown punch, grabbed the boy's wrist just as his instructors had taught, and used Goyle's own momentum to throw him over his shoulder.

Crabbe responded with his own fist, and unfortunately Harry wasn't quite prepared for it. It caught him in a glancing blow to his temple that knocked him to one knee. It was fortunate in a way, though, because it knocked him clear of the hex Malfoy had sent.

Harry had a brief glimpse of the hex hitting a horrified Hermione right in the face before everything went red. Hermione fell back into Ron's arms with a cry and Harry, coming up off his knee into a low crouch, lashed out with his other foot. In his anger, he poured magic into the kick.

Crabbe made a muffled grunt as the foot slammed into his ribs with an audible cracking sound and sent the boy flying back into the wall ten feet away. Without getting all the way up, Harry spun on his right heel, bringing his elbow around and down on Goyle's head.

The blow popped Goyle's face against the flagstone floor. He did not move again.

Harry jumped back in a fighting stance with his wand drawn on Draco and was about to launch a volley of spells when a voice interrupted him. "What is happening here?" Professor Snape snarled.

Snape saw two of his students down and out, and Potter with his wand on a third. "Fighting in the halls?" he said. "I'll have you expelled for this!"

"Goyle threw the first punch!" Ron shouted.

"Weasley, be quiet!" Snape snapped.

Harry had to physically restrain an urge to hex the professor. "Hermione was hit by a hex from Draco. She needs to go to the Hospital Wing."

"Not able to protect your friends, Potter?"

"I really shouldn't have to now, should I?" Harry snapped back.

"Detention, Potter! Weasley too."

"And what about them ruddy gits that attacked us?" Ron demanded.

Snape looked at the two thoroughly dismantled Slytherins and then sneered. "They look like victims to me." .

Behind Snape, Malfoy grinned.

"Well, if I'm going to be expelled anyway," Harry muttered.

Snape's eyes bulged and Draco's grin disappeared as Harry sent the strongest disarming hex he could at the Slytherin. Draco was so shocked at Harry's blatant disregard of Snape that he didn't think to move before the hex struck him in his chest and sent him somersaulting through the air into a suit of armor against the far wall. Draco's wand came flying into Harry's hand.

He then handed it to Snape. "If you're not going to punish your own junior Death Eaters you hypocritical ass, then I will, expulsion be damned. That bastard hexed my friend."

"Give me your wand!" Snape screamed.

"Try to take it," Harry snapped back.

By then a stunned crowd had gathered, and the gathering attracted more attention. Professor McGonagall arrived with a disbelieving face. "Mr. Potter!" she said, "did I just see you hex a fellow student? Right in front of a professor?"

"If I'm going to be expelled anyway, might as well be for actually doing something wrong for a change," Harry said.

McGonagall was a very experienced teacher, with decades under her hat. She noticed the fact that Harry, a very quiet and low-key student, was actually shaking with fury. She saw the two Slytherins on the floor, but she also saw Hermione holding her mouth and crying while Ron held her.

"I think this should be sorted out by the Headmaster," she decided.

"There is nothing to sort out," Snape snarled. "He attacked Mr. Malfoy right in front of me!"

"It shall be sorted out by the Headmaster," McGonagall said again, with steel in her voice.

"Fine!" Snape snarled.

She then turned to Ron. "Mr. Weasley, please see Miss Granger to the Hospital Wing."

He nodded and gently helped the shocked Hermione back to her feet. She never lowered the hands covering her mouth. McGonagall looked back at the two boys. "Diggory, I'm glad you're here. Please get Mr. Crabbe and Goyle to the hospital wing –Malfoy as well. The rest of you, return to your classes, please."

Harry and the two professors finally made it to Dumbledore's office. The headmaster naturally already knew about the altercation and was waiting with an impassive expression for all parties to attend. Unfortunately, all parties meant Harry, Snape and McGonagall.

Snape immediately launched into his damning version of events, and by the end even Harry felt guilty.

"Well, Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore finally asked. "Any response?"

Harry looked back at Snape, then down at his hands. Finally, he said, "I want to transfer to Beauxbatons."

The whole room fell deathly quiet. "Excuse me, Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore said.

"I'm going to contact my Godfather and get out of this place," Harry finally said. "You have a Death Eater as a professor. A Death Eater who has made my life a living hell from the day I began. A Death Eater who will punish me and my friends for me defending ourselves against an attack by the children of known Death Eaters. I hate him. I hate you for letting him treat me like this, and you for doing just as bad. I hate this God-damned cesspit of a school, and I want out. I want to be able to go to school and learn without having monsters like Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape making my life miserable, and without Dark Lords and dementors trying to kill me, or teachers casting unforgivable at us. And now that I have a guardian who actually loves and cares for me instead of the abusive Muggles you placed me with, I can make it happen. That's my response, sir."

Just then the fire in the office flared bright green, and Sirius Black stepped out clad in his formal Auror robes. He looked sharp and dangerous as he surveyed the group.

"Auror Black," Dumbledore said with deceiving calm. "May I ask what you're doing here?"

"A little birdie told me my godson was being expelled," he said. "That he was attacked by Death Eaters and was being punished for defending himself."

"I see," Dumbledore said. "We have a bit of a quandary, Mr. Black. A professor witnessed your godson hex another student right in front of him."

"Then I have no doubt that student more than had it coming," Black said. "Or more likely Snape is lying."

"How dare you!" Snape hissed.

"Reach for your wand and I'll show you how much I dare," Sirius snapped back.

"Enough!" Dumbledore rumbled. "Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall, I believe it is time that I, Mr. Potter and Mr. Black have a long overdue conversation. Could you please excuse us?"


	24. With Friends Like These

This is, by necessity, a talky chapter. But hopefully not redundant.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Four: With Friends Like These…**

"Mr. Potter has expressed a desire to transfer to another school," Dumbledore said when they were alone.

"Sounds like a brilliant idea," Sirius said. "Salem Witch's Institute is mixed-gender now. It might be nice to get you overseas."

"You want me to go to a witch's institute?" Harry asked his godfather in disbelief.

"Just think of the possibilities," Sirius grinned. "Five to one witch to wizard ratio. I checked."

"I cannot permit that," Dumbledore said calmly.

Sirius looked back, slipping into his grown-up face again. "I'd like to see you stop us."

"Mr. Black, you are forgetting one important matter. No matter how he got his name in the Goblet, Harry is now magically bound to compete in the Triwizard Tournament. Any attempt to leave the tournament will have a profound effect on his magic, possibly rendering him into little more than a squib. We wouldn't want that, now, would we?"

"Beauxbatons is competing as well," Sirius said with a shrug. "Instead of two Hogwarts champions, we could have two Beauxbatons champions. As it stands, I don't believe my godson is safe here."

Dumbledore formed a steeple his long bony fingers as he studied the two before him. In a low voice he said, "Mr. Potter, Professor Moody tells me that you were able to withstand the Imperius Curse in his class."

"Really?" Sirius said. "Good on you, lad!"

"This is very interesting, considering that last year you supposedly fell under an Imperius Curse when your wand was stolen and used to torture Professor Snape."

Harry stared right back at the Professor. "I was thirteen then, Professor. I'm fourteen now. I'm getting stronger as I approach my magical maturity."

"Perhaps... Although it is actually not a matter of magic, but of will. And training, of course. Have you had training to fight off the Imperius Curse, Mr. Potter?"

"I don't see how that concerns you, Dumbledore," Black said quickly. "I'll teach my godson whatever I see fit."

The professor stood and turned his back to them. "Mr. Potter, you will serve a week's detention with Professor Snape for your disregard of his authority. I'm sure your conflict with Messieurs Crabbe and Goyle was mutually incited, but your display before the Hogwarts staff cannot go unpunished."

"Like hell!" Harry snapped.

"Otherwise, I will have no choice but to report to the Ministry that you may have been implicated in an attack against Hogwarts staff," Dumbledore said. He turned around slowly. "I have no doubt that you were not the perpetrator of the attack against Professor Snape last term, but it is obvious you were involved. I believe questioning by the DMLE would elicit who actually did perform the attack and said person would be severely punished."

The threat hung in the air. Finally, Sirius said, "Headmaster, if you try to bring such an accusation forward, it will also call into question what Professor Snape was doing to warrant such an outburst in the first place. I dated Amelia for a year. I can tell you that she absolutely despises Legillimency. And I believe she has you personally to thank for that, no?"

"We are at an impasse, it seems," Dumbledore said. "I can guarantee a stint in Azkaban, Harry. If I have to lose Severus, it will cost you your freedom."

"Things have changed, Albus," Sirius said. "Amelia doesn't play those kinds of games."

"The Wizengamot can override her, Sirius," Dumbledore said. "And they would."

Sirius let that go for the moment, switching to a different track. "Tell me, Albus, why Snape? What is it you hope to gain by putting Harry with that monster?"

"Professor Snape has my utmost trust."

"From you, Albus, that means less than nothing." A look of cunning came across the newly reappointed Auror's face. "You know, I believe your testimony regarding Professor Snape is so suspect that we will have to reopen our investigation into his past. The fact that he spied for you does not in any way mitigate the fact that he is a marked Death Eater. You and I both know what a wizard or witch has to do to earn that mark. I think some testimony in front of the Wizengamot under Veritaserum would be most illuminating."

"Are you trying to threaten me, Auror Black?"

"Wouldn't dream of it," Sirius said. "I'm threatening Snape. We have more than enough to arrest him. Frankly, Headmaster, he is the reason the DMLE has had so few qualified recruits. Amelia has actually had to lower the Potions requirement and set up remedial potions training for new recruits just to be able to meet recruiting quotas. The man, aside from being an unmitigated ass, is a horrifically incompetent teacher. Your support of him brings into question not only your priorities, but your morals and your ability to lead this institution, not to mention your role as Chief Warlock. I doubt we would go after you directly, so rest assured we'd leave your name out of it. In fact, I'm relatively sure Snape would resist arrest and we'd be forced to kill him."

"Harming Severus would be a very, very dangerous move to make, young man. You have no idea of the game you are trying to play."

"What choice do you leave me? Because of your direct actions, my godson has been tortured for almost his entire life, in clear violation of his parents' wishes, the law, and any stretch of common decency. I don't care what your justification is, what you have done is abhorrent. You may be untouchable, but don't think even for a moment that I won't do everything in my power to protect my godson. You want Snape left alone? Fine. You keep him away from Harry and his friends. I want Harry out of potions. He will receive tutoring out of school for it."

Dumbledore actually shook a little as the air around him flared with magic. "You actually think to dictate terms to me?"

"I'm not dictating anything. I'm offering you a trade. I swear now before Merlin and on my magic that I will see Snape dead by the end of this very day if you try to make Harry serve any more detentions with him. You could allow Harry to serve his detention with Professor McGonagall, who as you know is strict but fair, and let Harry drop potions. If you do this, headmaster, I won't pull Harry out of this school at the end of the year and let him attend school someplace not run by evil, manipulative old monsters."

"Watch your tongue!" Dumbledore roared. He slammed both hands on his desk and rocketed back to his feet while a thunderclap crashed through the office. "You do not walk into my office and speak to me like that! I have done more for the Light than your entire family history!"

"And every good thing you have ever done, you've undone by abusing a boy left in your care," Black shouted back. Sirius took a deep, calming breath before he continued. "What is your answer, Headmaster? I frankly don't think it's a fair trade—Harry's freedom for Snape's life—but I suppose I need to sweeten the deal for you. Since let's face it—Harry's worth twenty of Snape."

Dumbledore settled back. "If I release Harry from potions, every other student would want to follow. I simply cannot allow that. However, I will accede to your request regarding Harry's detentions. All future detentions will be served with Professor McGonagall or another staff member. However, he must be seen to serve detention."

"Fine," Black said.

As Sirius stood to leave, Dumbledore said, "You will find, Mr. Black, that it is not wise to push me too far."

Sirius turned and eyed the man calmly. "And you will find, Headmaster, that the more you push us, the less the world will view you as a leader of the light. While your power is truly formidable, your reputation is very, very fragile at this moment."

With that, Black turned and disappeared into the Floo. Harry remained in his seat, staring at the headmaster's desk. "Is that all, Headmaster?"

"For now, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore virtually growled the words.

Harry nodded and left the room, all the while conscious of the eyes burning into his back.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

They held an emergency meeting in the secret room near the hidden stairs the very next day. Harry, Luna, Ginny, Ron and Hermione gathered together shortly before dinner the next night to discuss things.

Before the discussion really started, though, Harry looked long and hard at Hermione. "You look different," he finally realized.

She blushed. "Well, the hex Draco hit me with made my teeth grow. I may have asked Madam Pomfrey to shrink them down a little smaller than they were originally."

"That's it!" Ron declared. "Been trying to figure it out all day."

Harry grinned. "They look really good, Hermione."

"Thanks."

"So, about our problem," Harry continued. "I'm pretty sure Dumbledore threatened Sirius's life last night. He absolutely refused to let me get out of potions, but when Sirius pretty much threatened to arrest and kill Snape, he finally let me at least do my detentions with a fair instructor."

"Why wouldn't he let you out of potions?"

"He knows that if he lets me go, the entire student body would want out."

"We should kill Snape," Luna said. "It would be an effective means of dealing with the problem since he appears to actually be training a new army of Death Eaters. We have already seen evidence that students under him are willing to use Unforgivable Curses."

This silenced the others for a moment. "So the problem is what to do about Professor Snape," Hermione summed up.

"We kill him," Luna said with a shrug, as if the answer were obvious.

Ginny blushed and Hermione looked on in horror. "We can't kill him!"

"Of course we can. A knife in his throat, a fire in his bed... Poisons would be less likely to be effective since he does carry a bezoar on him at all times. But I assure you that he can be killed."

"Remember what Zeus said," Ginny reminded the blonde.

Luna seemed to sag and her expression turned sad. "Yes, I am not supposed to kill anybody."

She looked so down Harry couldn't help but give her a hug. "I'll serve the detention tonight and in the meantime Luna we need to contact Adonis for instructions. Let's make sure whatever we do we do it right."

"Very well," Luna agreed as she leaned into Harry's hug. Then she stepped out of his arms, took Ginny, and moved her into them. "Try it, Ginny. It feels very nice."

Hermione giggled and Ron's eyes bulged, but Harry just hugged the red-head until she smiled.

"Yeah, it does," Ginny said.

"Fourteen," Ron said.

"Twenty-eight," Luna said back.

"What?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought we were playing a numbers came. Counting by fourteen? Or were you doing exponential numbers, which 14 to the base of _e_ would be one million, two-hundred and two thousand, six hundred and four point two-eight-four-one-six…."

"Luna, that's making my head hurt," Ginny said.

Luna shrugged. "Very well, I will contact Adonis and find out what to do. Maybe he will change his mind and let me kill Snape." She hopped up and down, clapping like a little girl laughing at butterflies. Harry did not know what was more disturbing—that her talking about killing a professor didn't really bother him, or that she was actually cute while talking about it.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

"Something is rotten in the state of Hogwarts," was Adonis' response the next day.

"How literate of you," Luna admired.

"Yes, well, I am a world-renowned author, aren't I? I've already discussed this with Sirius. I'm not very happy with your agent, Luna. His threat to leave Hogwarts was too big—it forced Dumbledore into showing his hand too early. We might have been able to finagle some concessions before then, but once Harry asked to leave, the cat was out of the bag."

"You're mixing your metaphors, Adonis," Luna chastised him.

"I never said I was a good author, just world-renowned. Do you believe Harry's life is in danger?"

"Not from Dumbledore or Snape, just his pride and happiness. The greater threat is the tournament. I do not believe Dumbledore intended Harry to be in it, and is upset at the risk to his weapon."

"Yes, this smells like one of Voldemort's elaborate, overly complex schemes. Very well, if at any point you feel that Snape's treatment of Harry becomes life threatening, you are to contact me as soon as possible so that we can plan a course of action. In the meantime, be on guard and keep your head down. Do nothing that would call attention to you personally."

"Yes, sir. And the tournament?"

"Harry's survival is paramount. However, Zeus has heard some interesting whispers from the intelligence community regarding the tournament, and its champions. We're still digging, but we may want you do some investigation as well. In the meantime, keep our boy alive."

"I understand."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

McGonagall was not a happy woman as Harry walked quietly into the transfiguration classroom. "Mr. Potter," she said curtly. "Come sit, please."

Harry did so, taking the lone seat before her desk.

"You cost this house one hundred points. I have heard Severus's explanation; I would like to hear yours."

So Harry told her as much as he dared about the confrontation. She listened silently, her face held in an impressive poker face. When he finished, she simply nodded. "While I understand your anger," she said, "you nonetheless hexed a student directly in front of his head of house. Regardless of circumstances, in any other student that would have resulted either in a suspension for a term or an outright expulsion. But for some reason the headmaster has made it clear that short of killing a student you will not be expelled."

"I'm not the only student in that category," Harry said.

"No, perhaps not. But you're the only student in that category in my house. I demand better, Mr. Potter. Don't you dare drag this house's reputation down into the sewer that Slytherin revels in."

Harry lowered his head, truly ashamed for the first time. "I'm sorry, Professor. I truly am. When he cursed Hermione and Snape obviously didn't give a damn, I…I got too angry to think clearly."

She sat at the table watching him for the longest time. "Harry, did you enter your name in that cup?"

Harry met her gaze squarely, "No, ma'am."

"Do you know who did?"

"Probably someone who is working for Voldemort,"

"I see. Well, enough chit-chat. I'm sure you have some work to do."

"Yes, ma'am, Arithmancy tonight."

"Very well, get to it."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The Weighing of the Wands ceremony landed in the middle of November on a cold, overcast day. The Daily Prophet had a reporter there who seemed to buzz about the crowd. She tried three times to get an interview with Harry, but Sirius was there for the ceremony as well and was able to deflect her interview attempts soundly.

"You're already old news," the garishly dressed Rita Skeeter complained to Sirius, "but your godson is fresh and ready for a headline."

"And you're fresh and ready for my foot in your ass," Sirius replied with a charming smile and a wand pushed against the heavy black rims of her glasses. "Harry is underage and will not be giving any interviews. Now move on."

When at last the ceremony was over Sirius took Harry for a walk on the grounds. When they finally stopped he cast several privacy wards, as if the cold wind wasn't enough to grant them privacy.

"Alight, Zeus has said the tournament rules be damned. So here we go—the first task is Dragons. I saw the papers authorizing the shipment of the dragons this morning. They'll be arriving late next week two days before the first task. Your task will be to get an object away from the dragons without hurting either the animal or yourself. We've analyzed the situation and think there are a few approaches you and your team should consider. One—try summoning the egg. Eliminate the obvious. Two, summon a broom and outfly the dragon. Three—depending on your skills, transfigure objects to distract it. Four—talk to it. We honestly don't know if dragons speak Parseltongue or not. However, it couldn't hurt to try."

"And five," Harry said, "just turn and run away."

"Sorry, my boy you can't do that. Part of the second task is in the object you have to get. Talk it over with your team and see what they think."

"Okay."

"And that's that for the tournament. Now we get to other news. Viktor Krum is not Bulgarian. He was actually born in the Soviet town of Nizhnevartovsk in central Russia to Muggle parents. He speaks six languages."

Harry blinked in surprise. "He's Muggleborn? Does Durmstrang even allow Muggleborns?"

"No, they don't, and that's the rub. His records were falsified. We had to use pretty much every contact in the Bulgarian Ministry we had, but we've learned that he is a suspected spy."

"For whom?"

"Russia. The Russian wizarding community, which was already thin due to Lenin, was obliterated by Stalin because of Grindelwald's connection to Hitler and the Nazis. It took the Soviets twenty years, but as good as wizards are, we're still human. With an entire country hunting them, the Russian wizards never had a chance. Many escaped to Bulgaria or France, others went to the Americas. But those who didn't get out were killed. Since then, from what we know, Muggleborn wizards have been claimed by the state and are probably being used for intelligence gathering even under the new Russian government."

"That's just insane," Harry whispered.

"Harry, you have to understand that in 1981 Voldemort was on the verge of becoming the next Grindelwald. Every magical ministry in the world was watching the English Ministry, which was one of the oldest and most powerful, crack and fall before this one wizard. Don't kid yourself—we haven't recovered at all. America now has the largest magical population because of the sheer number of people we lost."

"I'd think China does."

"China kills witches and wizards the moment they're found. They are worse than the Soviets. A threat to the state, you see."

"Why isn't any of this taught to us?"

"Because your history teacher is dead, Harry. I didn't learn this stuff until I started fighting after school. Your dad taught me a lot ot it. Now, are you ready for your briefing to continue?"

Harry realized with a start that that's exactly what the visit was—a tactical briefing. "Okay, I'm ready."

"Next, Fleur Delacour is a direct descendant of Antoinette Delarue."

"Who?"

"That's right, dead history teacher. During the Second World War, Delarue was a part of the _Maquis Magique_, the magical branch of the French Resistance. She was famous for seducing one of Grindelwald's highest-ranked lieutenants. It was she who got Grindelwald's location to Albus and his squad. In effect, she set up the duel that ended the magical portion of the war. She was a full Veela."

"And?"

"The Veela have been spies for generations, Harry. This confirms that Fleur is likely Veela herself, since the trait runs true. She has probably learned to control it around others, but she could blast you with the Veela allure strongly enough to leave you a gibbering idiot if you don't have training to resist."

Harry thought hard on this. "So you're saying they're both spies?"

"Spies, Operatives ... They're the French and Russian versions of you, Harry. Probably not Sports, but both will be 99th percentile power wise and well trained from a young age. We need to find out why they're here and what they're after."

"To stop Voldemort?" Harry suggested.

"Or to help him. It depends. If they're here to determine the status of Voldemort and set up defenses against him, frankly we'll accept the help. If they're here to help him, that'll be another issue entirely. You might consider using that cloak of James's."

Harry nodded. "Sirius, I'm worried about you. Do you think Dumbledore would try to hurt you?"

Sirius looked at Harry long and hard before answering. "I think he would orchestrate things to ensure Voldemort's people hurt me, but he wouldn't do it himself. Did you know Grindelwald is still alive? Dumbledore couldn't bring himself to kill the man who helped Hitler take Europe. I don't know if he's ever killed anyone directly. However, I know for a fact that many, many people have died as a result of his actions. Including, Harry, your parents. Dumbledore is a powerful wizard, but I'd rather follow a Crup into hell than follow him into battle."

"A Crup?"

Sirius shrugged, "Just saying."

"Okay."

With that, the briefing ended and Sirius gave Harry a hug before leaving. When he was gone, Harry shook his head. "When did everything get so complicated?"

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

That evening in detention with McGonagall, Harry studied his books on dragons until the professor became curious and asked why.

"The first task is dragons," Harry said.

"How in Merlin's name could you know that?"

Harry shrugged. "Everyone knows. I saw Cedric at the library and he was looking at other books about dragons, and I know Krum and Delacour know too."

McGonagall shuddered: "A fourteen-year-old child against dragons?"

"At least I have better odds than a one-year-old against a dark lord," Harry said.

The transfiguration professor blanched. "Indeed," she managed to say. "I presume then you have a plan?"

"I have about five plans and two back-ups depending on how the first five go," he said. "Turns out dragons are mostly impervious to magic."

"Well, then, by all means carry on with your reading. If you need to practice any spells, please feel free to do so."

"Really?"

"Of course."

"Great. I need to be able to transfigure a rock into a dog, but I've been having trouble."

McGonagall blinked, and then gave a wry smile. "Well, I do believe I might be of some assistance."

Harry grinned at her.

* * *

sp

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and also to JR and Miles for additional beta reading. As always the three of them made this a better chapter.


	25. Who Needs Dragons?

Author's Note: Responses and comments for the Chap 24 Reviews are available in my Defense for Two Forum, the link to which is in my profile. Thank you all for reading!

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Five: …Who Needs Dragons?**

"Potter!"

Harry was just emerging from another training session with Luna and Ginny when the hoarse voice caught his attention. He looked up to see Moody stomping toward him with his artificial eye swinging madly about.

"Yes, professor?"

"Wanted to talk to you, boy!" Moody said. He grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him into one of the many unused classrooms around the castle. "So, do you know what the first task is?"

"Dragons, sir."

"Good lad. Now, what are you going to do about it?"

"Summoning charm first, sir."

Moody smiled. "Nice thought, but won't work. There's an anti-summoning ward around the nest. What else?"

"A few things ... I'm going to try talking in Parseltongue to it as well."

Moody's normal eye blinked. "You're a Parselmouth, boy?"

"You didn't know?" Harry asked. "I thought it was in all the papers in my second year."

"I don't read papers," Moody said quickly. "Bunch of hogswallup if you ask me. But it sounds like you are going in with a plan, and that's good. If worse comes to worse you can always try a conjunctivitis curse."

"That's a back-up plan," Harry said. "I don't want to actually hurt the dragon."

"I see. Well, good luck, lad. I'll be watching."

Luna and Ginny did not emerge from the other room until Moody was gone. "That was interesting," Ginny said. "I wonder if the headmaster sent him to try and help you."

"I don't know," Harry admitted. "We have time for lunch, right?"

"I don't know how you can think about food before the task," Ginny said. "My stomach is twisted in a knot, and I'm not even competing."

"It's good to keep our energy up," Luna said. "Let's go eat."

The Great Hall was filled not just with students, but also Ministry officials including the scowling Scrimgeour. And next to him – "Ginny is that Percy?" Harry asked.

"Yes, he took a job at the ministry. I think he's Mr. Scrimgeour's aide for the tournament."

"They don't look happy," Harry said.

"Scrimgeour went from Head Auror to the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, a department that didn't exist before the tournament and likely won't exist after," Luna said. "He went from managing a staff of two hundred to a staff of Percy Weasley and Bertha Jorkins, who has since disappeared. Even worse, the Head of the Misuse of Muggle Objects was promoted to head the DMLE over him. It was not a good idea for him to antagonize Amelia Bones."

Hermione and Ron joined them. Ron looked pale, but Hermione looked absolutely sick. "Hello, Harry," she said. "How are you?"

"Nervous," Harry admitted. "We have a good plan, though."

"I was thinking last night…" Hermione began. "You're such a good flier, if you could learn the summoning charm you could…"

"I'll have his broom outside the stadium," Luna said.

"Harry and I've known that charm since his second year," Ginny said. "I learned it as a first year."

Hermione seemed to deflate, until Harry reached across the table and took her hand. "Thanks, Hermione," he said. "It's going to be okay. Because my friends are going to be there rooting for me, right?"

"Yes," she said before biting her lip.

She then elbowed Ron, hard. "Er, right!" Ron said quickly.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Naturally he would get the Hungarian Horntail. Three dragons of varying personalities and traits, and a fourth rabid, blood-thirsty monster and Harry, the youngest champion by three years, naturally had to get the monster.

He left the tent and all the carefully laid plans and contingencies just fell away like so many flecks of ash when he caught sight of the monster for the first time.

Unlike the other dragons that waited for the champions to approach, the horntail attacked _him_. It launched itself into the air with a huge billow of its wings; the wind alone was enough to knock Harry from his feet, and only a quick roll prevented a spiked tail from crushing him.

He transfigured a rock onto a dog, which lasted just long enough to yelp before the dragon impaled it with a claw and tossed the beast into the air, even as it coughed fire at him.

In the stands, Ginny grabbed a hold of Luna's hands while Hermione was covering her face in horror. "The dragon is much more aggressive than the others," Luna noted with a detached voice.

Below, Harry was literally running and hopping for his life as the dragon hunted him mercilessly. The other people in the stadium realized that the dragon was acting much more aggressive than it should have even for this particular breed.

Harry gave up any pretence of a plan and began to react on instinct. With the dragon hovering over him constantly, there was no chance for a summoned broom to reach him. He knew Luna had it shrunk in her robe, but he doubt it would make much difference.

What he needed was something to make the dragon back off.

He hid behind a boulder as a rush of fire poured around him, scorching his robes. The fact the boulder blocked the fire inspired him. He turned to face the back of the stone even while fire billowed around him, and hit the boulder with his strongest banishment charm.

The boulder flew right into the horntail's open mouth.

An enraged cry coming from the dragon filled the stadium. The stone had lodged just far enough into the dragon's mouth that it could not open it any more to get the stone out, nor could it attack with fire.

Around Harry, the stadium started cheering wildly as Harry ran past the incensed dragon toward the nest. He snatched the egg and scrambled back over the rocky surface. He paused before the tent, turned, and shouted _"Reducto_!" at the rock.

The stone shattered and the furious dragon roared a huge bellow of fire into the sky, but by that time Harry was already in the tent.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

"The dragon was tampered with," Adonis said during their training session the following morning in the Shrieking Shack. "Our man did a test and found the Horntail had been dosed with a large amount of pheromones, which put it into a mating frenzy."

Ginny snickered at the look on Harry's face. "Mating frenzy?"

"It did not see you as a mate, Harry," Adonis said with a tolerant smile. "She saw you as a challenger for her mate. With the amount of pheromones in her blood stream, she would have attacked her mate as well. You handled the situation very well."

"It wasn't even one of our plans," Luna noted. She sounded disappointed.

"The best laid strategy has to give way to tactics once battle is engaged. Luna, your job is to create a winning strategy that will encourage and aid Harry, but in the end he and Ginny have to have tactical skills as well. And I have to say, Harry, you did well."

"Thank you, sir."

"Any progress on the second clue?"

Luna nodded, having been the one to solve it the first time she heard the message. "It is a riddle in Mermish. It implies something or someone Harry treasures will be taken to the bottom of the Black Lake where Harry will have to retrieve it. I did some research and found that past tournaments have used hostages to encourage champions in the past."

Adonis shook his head in disgust. "This was why the damn tournament was cancelled in the first place! It is barbaric, so much so we started to research why the other schools actually agreed to compete. That's when we learned about the other champions."

Harry of course had related all he knew of Krum and Delacour to Ginny and Luna, and both nodded now. "It was an excellent means of getting them into the country," Luna noted.

"Indeed," Adonis said. "What news on Snape?"

Harry shrugged. "I've had detentions nearly every night that he has assigned, with points deducted. However, I've reached an understanding with Professor McGonagall and aid her in grading first year papers for my detention. She then awards me the points back for helping her. So far the situation appears to be in equilibrium."

Adonis nodded. "While she is often blinded by her trust in Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall has always been a fair witch. She also had a fondness for your father. I'm not suggesting you abuse it, but I suspect that you could continue to build that relationship."

"Yes, sir."

"I also understand that there is going to be a Yule Ball."

"Really?" Ginny asked.

"Fourth year and above, unless a third year or below is specifically invited by another fourth year or above," Adonis said. He looked at Luna and Ginny. "Get yourselves invited."

"I'll invite them," Harry said quickly.

"Unfortunately it's one guest per champion."

Harry looked torn, but Luna smiled luminously. "Harry, you must take Ginny, of course. I will find my own way in, do not worry."

"Are you sure?" Ginny asked.

"There was never any doubt," the lithe blonde said. "You and Harry are partners. If it makes you feel better, I need you to be together."

"Good, we're decided," Adonis said. "Now, let's see where our Occlumency is this morning."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

"Hermione, you're a girl," Ron said a bit too loudly. "You'll go with me, right?"

"Oh no," Ginny whispered.

Harry closed his eyes and shook his head as Hermione's expression vacillated between outrage and anguish. "One week before the ball and you just now realize that I am a girl?" she said. Somehow she sounded more frightening for the completely cold tone of voice she used. "As a matter of fact, I already have a date for the ball."

"No way, who'd want to go with a bookworm like you…."

Hermione looked like she was about to curse him, but Ginny said, "Allow me." She slapped him in the back of the head, hard enough to make his face bounce off the table.

Hermione sniffed. "Thank you."

"Sometimes he needs it," Ginny said.

"What'd you do that for?" Ron cried.

"Ron," Harry said, "you just told Hermione—_our _Hermione—that no one would want to go out with her. She's the brightest witch of our generation and frankly one of the most beautiful and you just insulted her. Think about that, Ron. I mean, Merlin's beard, think about what you just said to the best friend either of us have!"

Hermione looked like she was about to cry at Harry's words. But the effect on Ron was almost profound. He blushed to the roots of his hair, and then went strangely pale as he looked from an outraged Ginny, and exasperated Harry, and a genuinely hurt Hermione.

"Er… I am sorry, Hermione," he finally managed to stammer out. "I was a git, wasn't I? The bloke taking you—he's nice at least, right? He'll be nice to you?"

"He has been a gentleman in every one of our conversations," Hermione said, fighting to maintain her composure.

"Oh, okay. I'm… Okay. Good." Looking stunned and confused, Ron got up and left the table. A few seats down, the twins watched their brother walk away. When he was gone, they announced loudly: "Ladies and gentlemen, you have now seen what happens when a Weasley male gets struck by a deep thought." That was George.

Fred added: "He breaks."

The rest of the Quidditch team laughed at the joke even as Hermione sank back down to the table. "I…" she began.

"I think Ron realized for the very first time that you are not only a girl," Ginny said softly, "but that you're beautiful. I'm glad you're not going with him, Hermione. Because maybe now he won't take you for granted as his friend."

"Thank you both," she said, before she too turned and left the room without actually eating.

"Those two hurt each other so much," Ginny muttered.

"Ginny, do you think we should have a fight?" Harry asked out of the blue.

"What? Why?"

"Aren't couples supposed to fight?"

Ginny snickered. "We're not a couple Harry. Remember, you can't actually date me until I'm fourteen. So until then, we don't need to fight."

"Oh, yeah ... Good ... I don't like fighting that much."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Ron sat on the edge of the lake, shivering in the snow despite his warming charms. The lake itself was frozen into a gray sheet stretching into the snowy gloom.

He was too cold to cry, but he wanted to. Everything inside him felt broken and alone. He was so caught up in his self-pity he did not hear or even feel the presence next to him until he felt a hand on his.

He looked up in surprise to see Luna studying him. "What are you feeling?" she asked. It sounded strangely detached and clinical—or it would have if he didn't know Luna. The holidays taught him more about her than he cared to think about.

"Don't wanna talk 'bout it."

"Yes you do," Luna said. "I've known you my whole life. And while many of the things you Weasleys do confuse me, I have observed that none of you keep emotional pain quiet, at least not for long. I know that you are in pain from your expression and the fact you are out in a blizzard shivering under a too-weak warming charm."

She corrected that, and Ron instantly felt warmer. "Thanks," he muttered.

"So, what are you feeling?"

"Like I've been abandoned," he finally admitted. "Harry's got you and Ginny and…I just thought Hermione was for me, you know?"

"For you?" Luna repeated, blinking. "Hermione is not for anyone, Ron. She is a powerful, intelligent witch. She is not a consolation prize for the best mate of the Boy Who Lived."

"I know that," he said.

"You know that now," Luna said. "But not then,"

"You're not making me feel any better," he accused.

"Why ever did you think I would?" she asked, tilting her head oddly. "I rarely am able to comfort anyone. Normally I just hurt people. It's much easier that way. So, let me ask you: Now that you know what you know, what would you do different with Hermione?"

"I guess…." Ron dropped his face in his hands. "I don't know. I like her, but she drives me mental, you know? She won't let me just be me. She's always nagging me about eating or taking a bath. You know what she said yesterday? She told me to shave. Acts like me mum, she does! Drives me nutters."

"And what do you think she has in common with your mum?" Luna asked.

"She a nutter too?"

Luna sighed. "Ron, I know it is difficult for you not to be stupid, but it is cold. If I cannot bring comfort, at least help me help you in achieving clarity. Why do you think your mum treats you the way she does? Is it because she hates you?"

"Nah, Mum loves me. She loves everyone. Little mental if you ask me, but I know she loves me."

Luna said nothing; she just sat and stared at Ron with large, silvery eyes.

"What?" Ron asked.

She continued to stare at him until he had to look away. "Hermione doesn't love me," he said. "She's going with some other bloke."

"Because you never asked her to go," Luna said.

The terrible, awful truth hit Ron like a brick. It stole his breath and brought tears to his eyes. He never asked her, because on some level he always expected her to be by his side. Whether as a date or a friend, he just assumed she would be there, because she couldn't be by Harry's side any more.

"I didn't ask her," he admitted. "Is that why she's been so…"

"Disappointed in you? Yes, I suspect so. It is strange how people who profess to care for each other can also cause each other the most pain."

"Harry and Ginny don't."

"That's because they are different than we are," Luna said. "Our magic affects our personalities just as our personalities affect our magic. Harry and Ginny are so powerful, and their magic is so compatible, that it is literally reshaping their personalities to be more compatible. You've noticed how Harry has become more outgoing in the past year. Do you think the Harry would have hexed Draco in front of Professor Snape even just a year ago? Meanwhile, Ginny has become a little more reserved. By the time they are adults, I suspect they will be literally soul-bonded."

Ron hadn't noticed that, until she pointed it out. "Does that mean I love Hermione too?" he asked.

"Ronald, you are a fourteen year old boy. Also you are stupid. I do not think you are even capable of adult love at this point in your life."

Ron flushed. "Gee, thanks. Right joy you are."

Luna shrugged. "I try not to lie if it is not necessary. Truth is easier to keep track of. However, you do depend on her. And if you feel this way about Harry and Ginny, then imagine how Hermione must feel when Harry shifted from depending on her, to Ginny and me. All she had left was you. And you…"

"Didn't ask her to the ball. Yeah, I get it. I'm stupid. I'm a prat. I'm a right ruddy bastard I am. The stupid good-for-nothing son who's never going to amount to anything 'cause his brothers have already done everything."

"And who likes to wallow in self-pity," Luna added.

"I don't talk like that."

"Hermione nags you because she is trying to make you a better person. She wants you to be a better person because, for whatever reason, she thinks you might be worth pursuing romantically one day. But that will never happen if you don't even try, Ronald."

"So what am I supposed to do?"

Luna leaned forward, and for a brief moment Ron felt frightened. "Try talking to her," Luna said. "In the meantime, you are taking me to the ball."

"Er, okay. Wait. What?"

"I need to be there, but Harry cannot ask Ginny and I both. So I will go with you. We will dance once, and then you can mope at a table all you want. Or you can, for the first time in your life, act like a man and ask Hermione for a dance. Even if she says no, it would let her know you cared."

"I…okay."

Luna stood. "Good, I'm glad we're agreed. You shall pick me up half an hour before the ball begins. Harry and Ginny will have to go first as champions, but I wish to be there on time. I reserve the right to transfigure your dress robes depending on what your mother chooses for you. While she is a loving soul, Mrs. Weasley is in fact quite crazy."

With that, Luna hopped down from the stone and disappeared in the snow. Ron shook his head in shock, and then looked back over the lake. "Right," he said. "Enough stupid."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

That night, as Harry and Ginny were snuggled by the fire reading his arithmancy text and reviewing Hermione's notes, Ron sat down on the couch near the stuffed chair Hermione was using for her own homework.

He looked nervously at Harry and his sister, and then briefly looked around the room before clearing his throat, "Hermione?"

"What, Ron?" she said without looking up.

"I… I've been thinking."

"I'm sure there's a potion for the pain," she muttered.

Ginny snickered but made a point not to look up from the book.

"Yeah, I'll probably need it later," Ron agreed with a wry smile. "I know I said a lot of mean things. Didn't think about it 'cause I am a stupid git. But I guess what I'm really sorry for isn't saying those things. I mean, I am 'cause it hurt you and I didn't want to. I'm trying to…I mean…"

He sighed, and for the first time Hermione looked up from her book.

"What I'm most sorry for is that I didn't ask you to the ball proper, when I should have," he finally ground out. "You're my best friend. I just don't know what I'm supposed to… and then… well, there you have it."

"And the really frightening thing is I think I understand," Hermione said with a long sigh. "You hurt me, Ron."

"I'm really sorry, Hermione. I didn't mean to."

"And you'll probably do it again, you prat."

"Can I say sorry in advance?"

Hermione gave a chuckle that sounded almost like a growl. "God, boys are stupid."

"Usually," Ginny muttered.

Harry looked at her, and she winked, which confused him more.

"Did you get a date?" Hermione finally asked.

"Luna ordered me to take her," he said. "I don't know if it's a date or an assignment."

"Probably the same thing to her,"

Ron took a long, ragged sigh. "Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that."

Hermione deliberately marked her page with a tassel, placed the book on the table, and then stepped over the carpet to give the startled boy a hug. She then kissed his cheek. "Thank you, Ronald. No, go see Madam Pomfrey. With all that thinking I'm sure your brain hurts."

She stood, gathered her things, and left the common room.

"Feel like I just got hit by a Bludger," Ron muttered.

Ginny left Harry's side and gave her brother a hug. "Ron, that's probably the nicest thing you've ever done, for anyone. Make sure you don't ruin it by being stupid again."

She too left, leaving Harry and Ron alone in the common room. "So," Ron muttered, "fancy a game of chess?"

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and also to JR and Miles for additional beta reading!


	26. James Bond, He Isn't

Chapter 25 Review Responses and Comments are available in my forums. Thank you.

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**Chapter Twenty-Six: James Bond, He Isn't**

The Yule Ball was in full swing when, at Luna's direction, Harry moved in on an obviously bored Fleur Delacour, who was dancing with Roger Davies.

"Madam," Harry said with a short bow. "I was wondering if I could have the honour of a dance with my fellow champion."

Delacour raised one elegant brow. "_Oui_," she finally said. "Roger will not mind, will you?"

"Not at all," the besotted Davies said. He walked away, stumbling as if in a trance.

They began dancing a waltz since the band was still in the formal phase of the ball. "I did not know you danced so well, 'Arry."

"Lots of lessons," Harry said with a nervous grin. "Sorry if I step on your toes."

"_C'est la vie_," she said with a casual shrug. "You did well at zee first task. I admit I was, oh, _comment dirais-je, surpris_? Surprised. Yes, surprised at how well you did. Perhaps you are not such a leetle boy after all."

"Oh, I'm pretty short even for my age," Harry said, still with that wry grin.

She looked at him curiously, and then in a short burst unleashed her Veela allure. Harry felt a wave of intense heat and desire so strong his pants became uncomfortable and he stumbled in her arms, but at the same time the past two years of training kicked in almost of their own accord and his fledgling Occlumency shields rose. Though he could not have prevented a concerted Legilimens attack on his mind, the Veela allure was diffuse enough that he was able to block it.

Fleur, though, had no way of knowing that. "Would you come walk with me, 'Arry Potter?"

"Yeah," Harry said, acting the same as he saw Roger Davies a few minutes before.

"_Tres bien_!" She took his arm and led him into the decorated maze outside the great hall the school created just for the ball. "Tell me, 'Arry, do you love me?"

"Oh yes," Harry lied.

"Very good," she said, suddenly without a trace of her accent. "Because if you truly love me, you'll tell me everything you know about why Dumbledore pushed so hard for the tournament."

Harry blinked, not bothering to hide his confusion. "I don't know. I thought it was Scrimgeour who pushed for the tournament."

"_Non_, it was Dumbledore. He visited Madame Maxime personally. But if you don't know…do you not receive special instruction from your headmaster?"

"No."

"Interesting. Tell me, Harry. Where do you live?"

Harry paused, concerned. She let off another blast of the allure, and then even more dangerously, she began to undo the buttons of her dress robe. "Don't you want me to come visit you, Harry?" she whispered. "How can I visit you if I don't know where you live?"

Even with his Occlumency, Harry was having difficulty speaking. This had less to do with her allure and more to do with the perfect, cream-colored bosom that was slowly being exposed before him. "Don't you want to touch me, Harry?" she asked.

She continued unbuttoning and started to peel back the cloth of her black lace bra to reveal more and more of a perfect mound. Harry couldn't help but stare—it wasn't the allure controlling him now, it was pure hormones. But a dry voice in the back of his mind that sounded disturbingly like Luna pointed out that the French should not know exactly where he lived.

Surprised at the strength of his voice, while still continuing to stare at the increasingly exposed breast of Fleur Delacour, he said, "Is this how your grandmother seduced Grindelwald's lieutenant?"

The moment ended with a snap. The allure broke apart like a stiff breeze parting before a tree, and she straightened her robes with a sharp glare. "What are you talking about?" She didn't even sound French any more.

"Your grandmother, Antoinette Delarue. Did she train you?"

"Foolish boy," she muttered as she buttoned up her shirt. "You would have had the best time in your short, stupid life."

He swallowed in a dry throat. "I believe you. I'm just not sure I could pay the price for it. So are you French _Conseil des Mystéres_?"

Her eyes narrowed. "You're unusually well informed, Mr. Potter... Too well-informed for a boy not receiving special instruction."

"Just call me Bond. James Bond."

"James Bond would have waited until _after_ sex before outing me."

"I'm only fourteen."

"Frankly, that just makes it worse. Can you think of any other fourteen-year-old boy who would, or even could, turn down a sexual advance from a teenaged Veela?"

"Can't think of a one," Harry admitted. "Except maybe me. I just…I don't like the idea of sex as a weapon."

"It is the most powerful weapon women have. Remember that, 'leetle' boy."

She turned to leave, but Harry caught her arm. "Why did Madame Maxime agree to the tournament? You asked about Dumbledore. Why did she agree?"

"You did not answer my question, why should I answer yours?"

"Ask another question, then."

"Where were you before you came to Hogwarts?"

"I lived with Muggles. Why did Maxime agree to participate?"

"We wished to find out what was happening with your dark wizard. Rumours were coming across the channel that his old network was starting up again. Is it?"

"Yes. If he returns, how will France stand?"

"With the French. English problems are for the English to solve. If the conflict extends into French soil, we will take aggressive steps to stop it. The last administration allowed him to work on the continent. The new administration will not. Will he return?"

"Yes. Would the French ministry take action to control any money flowing across the channel? The Malfoy family still has revenue-producing estates in France."

"I do not know, but it is likely the _Conseil_ would not take action against a tax-paying legal estate unless we had absolute proof, and even then action would be questionable. Why do you think he's coming back?"

"He did not really die. I faced his spirit my first year; it was possessing a professor."

"Ahh, Quirrell. We were unsure about that detail. Interesting."

"If petitioned, would France give sanctuary to my family and friends?"

She eyed him closely. "Not you?"

"I have to stay. But I've read about the last war. He goes after families and friends first. If he comes back, everyone I know and love is at risk. I'm not asking this of you in your role as an operative, Fleur. I'm asking as a fourteen-year-old boy who doesn't want his friends to be hurt."

For a moment, the haughty expression on Delacour's face softened. "_Non_," she finally said. "We would not grant asylum to any British. If Voldemort revives and takes that much power, then granting asylum to his enemies would just invite him to attack us. You would have better luck with the Americans. That might change, though, if you came as well."

Harry nodded. "Good to know. Thank you."

She started to leave, but paused. "Watch Krum," she said at the last. "He is no friend to wizard-kind."

"Thank you."

Harry was not surprised when Luna appeared from under his invisibility cloak after Fleur was gone. "Interesting. Krum is still dancing with Hermione."

_That_ was a surprise to see the two of them together before the ball began. Hermione never told any of them who her date was, though she seemed happy enough. "Who's watching him?"

"Both Ginny and Ron, though Ron is watching only to pout."

"And Ginny?"

"Watching for signs of the _Imperius_. Hermione knows a lot that Russian intelligence would like to have."

That worried Harry as the two made their way back into the great hall. The formal music had finally ended and people were now dancing energetically to modern dance music from the Weird Sisters. Harry noticed that Hermione and Krum were dancing very closely, and that Krum was whispering in her ear.

Harry walked over to Ron, who was watching the pair with a forlorn expression. "Go ask her to dance," Harry all but ordered.

"She'll say no."

"I learned some things about Krum that worries me. Go ask her to dance. _Now_."

While Ron's self-pity was one thing, Harry knew his friend genuinely cared about Hermione. The threat of her safety was enough to overcome his self-pity and he was moving determinedly through the crowd. From his distance, Harry couldn't hear what the red-head said, but Krum nodded graciously enough and allowed the two to dance.

Ginny arrived at Harry's side, flustered from a round of dancing with Neville. "Learn anything?"

"We were spot on with Fleur."

"And Viktor?"

"We'll just have to watch and see."

The evening proceeded without any further adventures and more dancing than Harry would originally have thought. But it turned out he actually enjoyed dancing so long as it was with Ginny. Luna strangely did not dance. She got out on the dance floor and moved, but it was less like dancing and more like odd, disconcerting undulation that made the other dancers keep their distance.

Still, and all, Harry enjoyed the evening a lot more than he thought he would have. Until, that is, he got back to the Common Room and discovered Hermione had never come back.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

"I WAS watching her!" Ron said. "I don't know how she disappeared." Harry went for the map, but she was nowhere in the castle. Neither, Harry noted, was Viktor Krum.

"Ginny, go get Luna," Harry said. "Take the cloak, just in case."

Ginny grabbed his invisibility cloak and ran out of the common room. Harry, meanwhile, said, "Point me, Hermione!" His wand spun about wildly. "She's under some type of ward, then."

He looked around and noticed they were starting to get a few stares from their classmates. "Come over here," he muttered, leading Ron to the far corner of the common room. "All right, keep watch, okay? I'm going to try a ward piercing detection spell."

"Didn't know there were any," Ron said.

"I'm not sure I'll be able to do it. It takes a lot of power. Hold on." Harry closed his eyes and summoned his magic just like in training. He said the Greek spell: "_Spáste tous toíchous gia na vreíte _Hermione!" and then poured every ounce of power he had into it.

He felt a strange pushback on his magic, as if something were resisting, so he pushed harder and harder until the resistance broke. His wand spun about and then angled itself in his hand. He stepped forward and looked out the narrow window, and with a start saw the wand was pointing right at the Durmstrang ship.

Forcing his magical exhaustion aside, he muttered, "Oh bugger me."

Just then the common room door opened and Ginny walked in, still in her beautiful green dress. "She's outside."

"Okay, let's go."

They slipped out of the room despite the curfew, and met Luna who was standing beside the portrait of the Fat Lady in a pair of set of pink cotton pyjamas and a thick, garishly pink bathrobe. "Have you tried the _Spáste_ charm?" she asked.

"Yeah, she was close enough I got a read even through the wards. She's on the Durmstrang ship. And why are you wearing that?"

"No time to change," Luna said with a shrug. "Karkaroff is still with the other headmasters in the Great Hall. Likely Krum planned to _obliviate_ her and then return her before anyone knew. We have to go now."

"What about Adonis?" Ron asked.

"We don't have time," Luna said with certainty. "She knows too much about the DOM program. If they use force to break her, the Unbreakable Vow will kill her. Let's go."

The managed to squeeze under the cloak, largely because of Ginny and Luna's small stature, and the four of them quickly made their way out of the castle, through the courtyard and down the grassy slopes to the quay leading to the ship.

"Do you have your broom?" Luna asked Harry.

"In my pocket."

Ron stared under the cloak. "Why do you have your broom in your pocket?"

"Because he's not really that glad to see you?" Luna asked. "I have a better question. Why did Harry stop Fleur from exposing her breasts to him?"

Ron started gagging on an abortive cough while Ginny said, "Really?"

Harry felt his cheeks flame, "Yeah."

"Why?"

"She was trying to allure me into giving up my address."

"I'd try and cop a feel at least," Ginny said.

"Ginny!" Harry said, shocked.

"Didn't you see her dress? Merlin, she even made me a little randy," The younger redhead said.

"Try squeezing Harry's arse," Luna suggested. "It is wonderfully tight and firm from his Quidditch. It might make you feel better."

"Please stop trying to embarrass me during our rescue mission."

"Just taking your mind off it," Luna said without even the hint of a smile. "Harry, Ginny, you need to sneak aboard. Non-lethals only. It is likely that anyone you encounter has had some defence training and is probably older and physically stronger, so use your speed. Once you're within the ward structure, you should be able to use a simple point-me."

"Right."

"What about me?" Ron said.

"You and I will stop him if Krum attempts to leave the ship," Luna said.

"Right, this is it then." They stopped by the last oak on the grounds before the quay. Harry fished out his shrunken Firebolt and enlarged it to full size. He and Ginny slid on while Luna led Ron around the tree.

"Remember your training. This isn't an exercise any longer," Luna said with an intensity that they had rarely seen. "If you need me, fire red sparks, but don't fire unless you need someone killed."

"Understand. Stay put."

Wrapped back up in their cloak, which was just large enough to cover the broom, Harry and Ginny slid noiselessly to the ship. Neither spoke as they reached the wardline that surrounded it. It was a standard intent-based DO NO HARM ward with what felt like a wicked confundus charm to enforce it. Remembering their training, the two used their fledgling Occlumency and a deep wish simply to help their friend to pass through the ward with only a warning tingle against their magic, until they alit onto the deck of the ship.

They cast silencing charms on their feet as they came in to land. Harry silently cast the shrinking charm on his broom and the two of them began walking carefully across the deck. Only one person was on the deck—a thick-necked seventh year with a shaved head and a bulbous nose that was already turning red from many years of drinking firewhiskey.

They slipped past this lone sentry into one of the doors leading below deck, and after walking down a staircase found themselves in a hallway at least twice as long as the ship itself. The interior had been radically expanded.

"Point me Hermione!" Harry whispered. His wand spun about a moment then pointed forward and slightly to the left. The two walked down a wide corridor decorated with Persian carpets over the wooden decking, golden lamps on the walls and portraits of old Bulgarian wizards. They continued down until they found the door the wand was pointing at.

"_Homenum Revelio!" _Ghostly images appeared over the tip of his wand—three men and nearby a sprawled girl or young woman. Hermione. "They must have cast silencing spells, I can't hear anything."

"Good, that helps us," Harry said. With a nod, the two cast silencing charms around them in the hall. Once that was done, he said, "On three, blast and stun."

"Got you," Ginny said.

"One, two, three!"

"_Bombarda!_" they yelled together.

The door exploded in splinters as the couple separated—Ginny with the cloak, Harry without—and dove into the room. Harry rolled to his feet and launched a flurry of stunners at what his reveal spell told him should have been the nearest wizard. The man was already moving, but not fast enough to avoid the onslaught.

Ginny's target was actually blasted off his feet by the explosion. Ginny stunned him anyway.

That left the third wizard, and Harry saw it was Krum. The wizard retaliated not with a stunner, but with a vicious and lethal disembowelling curse. Harry raised his shield and blocked it before dropping the magical barrier and rolling forward not with a curse, but a kick.

Krum spun away from the attack and cast a levitation charm. Harry felt himself go weightless and used his own mass to spin and fire a conjunctivitis curse almost at point-blank range. Krum just ducked his head and punched Harry right in the face, breaking one of the lenses in his glasses. Krum then followed with a front jumping kick that caught Harry right in the stomach and sent him into the ceiling, since he was still levitating.

He did not have a chance to hit or kick Harry a third time due to a silent _Expelliarmus_ that hit him from just inches away. The blast sent him tumbling into the far wall while his wand flew into the now visible hand of Ginny Weasley.

Harry fell to the deck and threw up. "Wow he kicks hard," he gasped.

Ginny stunned Krum and then performed the _reparo_ spell on the door, sealing them back into the room. Only then did she kneel by Hermione. "Hermione, are you all right?" Hermione's dress was partially undone, but with a blushing look at Harry she confirmed that Hermione still had her knickers on underneath.

"Just interrogation, then," Harry muttered. He picked himself up on shaking legs. "Damn, he kicked my arse. So much for being James Bond."

"Who?" Ginny asked.

"Muggle thing."

"Oh, okay. I can't get her to wake up, Harry."

Harry stunned the other two wizards again, and then bound Krum with ropes before reviving him. The Russian/Bulgarian wizard's eyes bulged dangerously. "Vat do you zink you are doink?" he all but roared.

Already, as if reading Harry's mind, Ginny was casting silencing spells about the room.

"I was going to ask you the same thing," Harry said. "What were you doing to Hermione?"

"I don't haff to answer to _stoopid_ little boys," Krum all but snarled.

"This stupid little boy has you tied up with a wand in your face," Harry said. "I've only killed one man in my life, but for hurting my friend, I'm willing to make an exception."

"We need to get Luna in here," Ginny muttered.

"She wouldn't be able to make it past the wards, since she does want to do harm." Harry made a quick decision. "But maybe we can take them to her."

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and also to JR and Miles for additional beta reading! This chapter especially they helped a lot.


	27. Interrogation Techniques

Chapter 26 review responses are available in my forums. Thank you.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Seven: Interrogation Techniques**

Since Ginny's transfiguration was a bit better, she stunned Krum again and then transfigured all three Durmstrang students into porcelain dolls. Harry slipped them into the deep pockets of his dress robes. Rather than risk transfiguring Hermione, Ginny simply levitated her. Harry undid the round port window in the room and prepared to leave. As he did so, he saw himself in the mirror, still dressed in his finest dress robes, but bruised and bloodied, and grinned.

"James Bond, eat your heart out."

"Come on, you silly boy," Ginny said. The two of them climbed onto his broom and Ginny levitated Hermione right beside them. They all had to bend over, but were able to squeeze through the wide window. From outside the ship, it looked as if they had emerged from a window only a foot wide.

They flew slowly over the quay until they reached the lone oak. "We have prisoners," Harry said tersely.

"Oh, goody!" Luna said, clapping her hands in delight. "I've so wanted to work on my interrogation techniques. Let's take them to the Shrieking Shack."

It took a long time with Luna and Ron on foot, but eventually they reached the tunnel under the Whomping Willow and made their way through the tunnel to the shack. Since they now regularly used the place for training, it had been heavily warded outside, and was actually very clean and even comfortable on the inside, replete with several sofas and a charmed cold box for drinks.

Harry placed the dolls on the floor and reversed his transfiguration while Ginny and Ron gently guided Hermione to the nearest sofa. Luna, meanwhile, went to the covertly established Floo and threw in a handful of powder. "Adonis' Nest!"

A moment later, Adonis' head popped up from the fire. "Luna, do you know what time it is?"

"We have a tactical situation, request immediate assistance."

The face sighed. "Step back."

A moment later the fireplace billowed green fire and Adonis emerged still in his night clothes. When he saw the Durmstrang students and said, "What's this, then?" he sounded exactly like his Gilderoy Lockhart persona.

"Viktor Krum appears to have kidnapped Hermione onto their ship," Harry reported. "I was able to cast the _Spáste_ charm to find her. Ginny and I snuck aboard and discovered her unconscious in a room with Krum and these two others. After a brief scuffle, we subdued them and brought them here for interrogation."

Adonis looked at Harry's battered face and broken glasses. "Brief scuffle?"

"He kicked Harry's arse," Ginny said. Rather than sound amused, she sounded indignant. "I got him from the side."

"We'll have to work on that, then," Adonis said. "Still, good night's work. Control, what are your suggestions?"

"I wish to handle this as a hostile interrogation," Luna said. "We need to determine why they took Hermione, what they were after, and who they work for. A secondary need is to determine what they did to Hermione. She will not wake up."

Adonis stalked across the room, knelt down before the unconscious Gryffindor, and sniffed. He then ran a wand over the witch, muttering. A slight violet haze covered her body. "Truth serum," he said. "Given the colour range, it's probably SP-117. Russian ... very effective on Muggles. Its effects on magical users are a little less well-known. Right now, you can't wake her up because she's drugged out of her pretty little skull. She'll wake tomorrow, likely with no memory of what happened. She's in no danger, though."

"Good," Harry and Ginny both sighed in relief.

Luna, meanwhile, started examining the three captives critically. She started flicking her wand, muttering the spells. First she banished their clothes, even down to their black skivvies, and then used a variation of the _incarcerous_ that essentially stapled their wrists and ankles to the wood floor with large, conjured metal U-shaped spikes. When she was done, the three boys were spread-eagled and naked on the floor.

"One more detail," she said. "_Sanguinous_!"

It was not a charm, but rather a conjuration. A blob of thick red blood struck first one and then the other of the unknown wizards right in their privates. The blood was so thick and clotted that it completely obscured their genitals.

"Now the stage is set," Luna said with a smile. "Wake him, please?"

"_Finite_," Harry said, tapping his wand to Krum's forehead. The Bulgarian seeker lifted his head, enraged. "What are you doing, you stoopid English dogs!"

"Interrogating you, of course," Luna said with a happy smiled. She held up a long knife that was red with conjured blood (though of course Krum did not know that). "Unfortunately, I don't have access to Russian truth serums, so I'm just going to get the information I want by cutting off your testicles and penis. I figure by that method, you have three chances to answer our questions. I saved you for last—I'm afraid your friends did not cooperate."

Krum looked and saw his companions, and the copious, clotted blood between their legs. "Are you insane, vitch?" he screeched in a much higher voice. "You vill go to vizard prison for this!"

"Only if they find your bodies," Luna said with a brilliant, terrifying smile. She knelt down between his legs and reached out with a pale delicate hand to lightly grasp the boy's terror-shrunken scrota. "So, here's how we play the game. I ask you a question, and you answer. If I think you are lying, I cut off one of your testicles. If I think you are telling the truth, I will not. We continue until I have no more questions, or until you are a eunuch who sits to pee. Understand?"

"You cannot do this!" Krum insisted.

"I am doing it. You kidnapped one of ours. There is a price for that. So, first question: what drug did you get to Hermione?"

Krum pursed his lips and looked at first one, then the other of his companions, then back down where Luna was carefully, and for Viktor quite painfully, separating a single testicle out with the edge of the blood-splattered knife. She had a look of happy intensity on her face. "Truth serum!" he finally blurted. "SP-118, modified for vizards and vitches. Ve mis-dosed and she fell asleep. It vill not hurt her!"

"Oh, we know, that was a control question. If you had hurt her, we'd be doing this with me angry."

"You don't want to see her angry," Harry said as he stepped into view. "You wouldn't like her when she's angry."

"I don't like the crazy bitch now!" Krum screamed.

Luna frowned. "That's not very nice." She slammed her knife down right into the meat of his thigh all the way to the hilt. Harry knew just enough from his training to know the blow was calculated—she intentionally missed his femoral artery. Viktor did not scream at first. He stared at the protruding hilt in shocked disbelief. Only then did he scream and jerk his body about in pain.

"Aaaggghhhh! _Vy chertovski shlyuha__!"_

"I think that means he doesn't like you anymore," Harry said to Luna.

"Too bad, I was thinking of giving him a blow job."

"Luna!" Harry said, aghast.

"It is a nice penis, after all. Either a blow job with a muggle blow dryer, or a blow torch."

She slowly and with deliberate calm withdrew the knife from Krum's thigh, ignoring his cries, and grabbed his scrotum again. "Second question, and please mind your manners this time. Why did you abduct Hermione?"

This time Krum did not hesitate. "Orders! Find out where Potter lives. Hermione vas best friend, thought she vould know."

"Interesting," Luna said. "Who do you work for?"

He hesitated until Luna pressed the blade down on the tightened skin of his sac and drew it a quarter of an inch, enough to draw blood. "Ahhhh! Directorate M!"

"_Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki_," Adonis said, speaking for the first time. "The modern equivalent to the KGB. Directorate M for _Magicheskii_- Magicals."

"What does your Directorate want with Potter?"

"The same thing the French want!" Krum said. "We want the next Sport under our control, or dead before he reaches his power!"

Harry sighed. "Does everybody know I'm a sport?"

"You really should have humored Fleur a little more," Ginny said. "You might have turned up lucky. Then when I'm older, you could have shown me what you learned."

Harry flushed red but knew better than to respond

"Do you work with Voldemort?" Luna continued, ignoring the others.

"No! We have strict orders to kill him or his supporters on sight. We remember his predecessor's attack on the _Rodina_, the Mother Country!"

"I think we've seen enough," Adonis said. "Let's clean them up, clothe them, and then I'll obliviate the evening from their minds. I will also implant a message for your superiors, Viktor, to restrain their impulses. The consequences will be dire if they abduct an English magical again."

"You know the really disturbing thing about this?" Ron said, looking pale. "None of this has shocked me. We just tortured Viktor Krum. And I'm not shocked. What's that say about us?"

"It says, Mr. Weasley," Adonis said firmly, "that we are in this fight to win."

When the three Bulgarians woke, it was to find themselves in the courtyard of Hogwarts stinking of firewhiskey, with no memory of the evening at all. The message Adonis left in Krum would lie dormant until he reported to his handler, which would trigger a compulsion to deliver it.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The day of the second task dawned cold and overcast. Harry woke and found Hermione and Ron in the common room, but there was no sign of Ginny. "Should we wait?" Ron asked.

Harry, though, knew where she was. Luna predicted the hostage for the second task would either by Ginny or Hermione. Now they knew. "No, we'll see her later. Let's go."

They ate in relative quiet while anticipation buzzed about the Great Hall. Luna casually walked by and handed him a thick envelope. "We decided this was your best bet," she said.

"What is it?" Hermione asked the Ravenclaw.

"Gillyweed."

"Brilliant!" Hermione said. "Harry, that's perfect. It lets you breathe under water for an hour!"

"Then that's what I needed," Harry said, smiling at Luna. "Never did get the Bubblehead Charm down good enough."

The champions were eventually summoned and were told what Harry and his team already suspected—he had to rescue a hostage from the lake. Harry couldn't help but glance at Krum and wonder who his hostage was. Cedric was looking pale, as if about to throw up. As they were giving their instructions, the entire student body made their way to the edge of the dark lake to watch.

Harry then looked at Fleur and could help but smile. "Nice suit."

She cocked one elegant brow. "You had your chance."

"True."

Ludo Bagman caused a loud explosion with his wand, and the four dove into the water. Harry stifled a scream at the near-freezing temperature and had to fight to get the gillyweed in his mouth. The effect was immediate, though, as his neck sprouted gills and his hands and feet developed webbing. Even his eyes sprouted membranes that cleared up his vision tremendously in the water.

Grinning, he swam down into the depths of the water.

Twice he was attacked by grindylows, but silent blasting charms sent them swimming away both times. Once he saw Fleur making her way through a forest of kelp, but he didn't pause. His one and only concern was getting Ginny to safety.

He couldn't pinpoint exactly when he became aware of the singing, but the lure of it guided him exactly where he needed to be. In the center of the mer village floated the four hostages. He was surprised to find someone smaller and younger than Ginny among the four. From her delicate, heart-shaped face and blonde hair, he suspected she was a relative of Fleur's.

Ginny looked pale in the dim light of the lake, but appeared to be asleep. Next to her was one of the two wizards Harry and Ginny interrogated from the ship the night of the ball. He might have been a relation to Krum, but Harry couldn't tell for sure. The fourth was Cho Chang, Cedric's girlfriend.

A quick severing curse split the rope holding Ginny down. He collected her and started swimming for the surface when something shot past him like a missile, leaving a bleeding gash on his left arm. He spun and saw a shark with the legs of a man.

Krum. Partial animal transfiguration was tricky to pull off, but evidently the wizard was skilled enough to do so. Harry's admiration for his work, though, ended the moment the Krum-shark turned back around, opened a jaw filled with razor-sharp teeth, and swam right for Harry and Ginny.

In a panic, Harry aimed his wand and silently cast _congelo_, freezing the water directly in front of him in a large cube. Krum ran right into it, striking his snout hard enough to draw blood. Harry swam away backward, clutching Ginny in one hand while keeping his wand trained on Krum with the other.

The ice immediately started floating toward the surface and Krum attacked again, intent on ripping Harry and his hostage apart. Somehow, the Russian spy must have figured out what had happened to him and his comrades after the Yule Ball and bided his time to act.

Harry waited this time until Krum was almost on him and then cast the freezing spell again, this time pushing every bit of his magic he could into it. The water around Krum solidified, encasing the creature completely. Oddly enough, the effect of causing the water to expand into ice also had a pushback on Harry and propelled him faster toward the surface.

He was almost there when he felt suddenly chilled. He looked down through once-more blurry vision to see the webbing on his hands and feet disappear, while his lungs started to burn with the need for air. With the loss of his one advantage and the exhaustion from defending himself and Ginny against Krum, it took everything Harry had to reach the platform where they started.

Hermione and Ron were on the platform, along with Ginny's father and her oldest brother Bill—the one with the dragon-tooth earring and ponytail. "Help me!" Harry called, and the two elder Weasleys reached down without hesitation and pulled Ginny from the water. A moment later Bill reached back down and helped Harry up.

"What happened?" Hermione asked. She was pointing out a large block of ice that was floating toward the middle of the lake.

"Krum attacked me," Harry said.

"Why on earth would he do that?" Mr. Weasley had overheard them.

"Don't know," Harry said. "He partially transfigured himself to a shark. Might have lost himself in the animal."

"Oh, that can happen," Arthur Weasley said sagely.

"So, Harry Potter," Bill said. "Should I be worried that your greatest treasure is my little sister?"

Just then, Fleur broke the surface grasping her little sister, and a couple that had to be her parents helped both out of the lake. Harry noticed the way Bill's eyes lingered on Fleur's long, shapely legs, and grinned. "If you hang around," Harry said, "I can introduce you."

"Really?"

"Really," Harry said. The question regarding him and Ginny was effectively diverted—he was learning from Luna after all.

Ron glared at Harry, until Ginny sputtered and coughed up water. "What happened?" she asked.

"We won, of course," Harry said nonchalantly.

When the final tally came in, not even Karkaroff could deny the fact that Harry emerged from the water first, but even then refused to give him full marks. Fleur came in second, followed very closely by Cedric. Krum failed to save his cousin completely and had to be fished out of the lake himself, near death from his exposure to the ice. Only his innate magic kept him alive and intact.

When they announced the results, Ginny, who was standing with Harry's arm around her and a blanket around both their shoulders, turned and kissed her saviour on the cheek in congratulations.

"Ginny!" Arthur said, startled.

"He did save me, Daddy," she pointed out reasonably.

"Just so you know, young lady, that there shall be no dating before fourth year."

"Yes, Daddy."

Arthur then looked at Harry, and winked. Harry couldn't help but grin and hold Ginny a little tighter.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

"Again!" Sirius barked.

Harry grunted with effort, ran the length of the magically expanded room in the Shrieking Shack at full speed, dove forward, hands first, into a nearly perfect roll, emerged, and then flew into a spinning side kick that broke clean through the conjured board.

He hopped away cursing. "Bugger!" he said. "Got my ankle bone again!"

Black showed no sympathy. "This is the field, what do you do?"

Harry rolled again as if ducking spell fire, but instead of rolling to his feet instead rolled to a sitting position and performed the bone-mending charm. Ginny winced. "It was broken?"

"Yeah, I had a bad angle on the board," Harry muttered.

"Ginny, your turn."

Ginny looked up from Harry to that day's trainer, set her teeth, and ran forward. She executed the roll better than Harry but her foot bounced off the board. She spun away, stifling a scream of pain, and lobbed a blasting charm instead.

"That's it!" Sirius said, clapping. "Over here." Ginny hobbled back over, collapsed to her haunches and performed a simple healing spell since her leg was not broken, only hurt.

Harry scooted to her side. Sirius ambled up to them. "Adonis told me about your adventure on the Durmstrang ship. Mainly that you, Harry…."

"Got my arse handed to me," Harry said. "Yeah, I know."

"It's not easy losing," Sirius said. "But you always learn a lot more from your losses than your wins—assuming you survive, of course. You learned that wizards with training are dangerous. You learned that most close fights like that don't last more than a minute—and if they do, you've already lost. And you learned what else…?"

"In a war, there's no such thing as cheating," Ginny said.

"Exactly! Zeus has had me looking through old reports, not just from Aurors and Hit Wizards, but from the Program as well. Do you know why almost all the Death Eater fatalities came from just a few pairs of Ministry-trained wizards rather than a force of hundreds of Aurors and Hit Wizards and the Order of the Phoenix combined?"

"The Program wizards fought to kill," Harry said. "And they fought to win."

"Just like the Death Eaters. It wasn't until Scrimgeour and Crouch Sr. came in at the end of the war that Aurors even admitted the possibility of using the killing curse, which is the most efficient means of magically killing someone. That's why it was such a joy watching your parents fight, Harry. I realize now that I never saw them in their Ministry Dee Oh Em roles, but when they fought for the Order of the Phoenix, they moved with such absolute coordination that it seemed like they were one person. And they fought dirty! One time Lily actually flashed Mitchell Hodgebanks to give James time to take him down. It was beautiful."

"You're just saying that because you got to see my mum's chest."

"Well, yeah," Sirius said, as if it were so obvious there was no need to say it. "It was Lily Evans Potter—the one girl in all of Hogwarts that every boy dreamed about."

"So you're saying I should flash Krum next time?" Ginny asked with a hint of a flush and a mischievous glint in her brown eyes.

Sirius shrugged. "If you do, tell your father it was Luna's suggestion. I don't want to face Molly or her Howlers."

Harry and Ginny both laughed. It was a Hogsmeade weekend in early March. There was still snow on the ground, but the air already smelled different with the hint of spring. They were finishing up two long, hard hours of training to work on the "deficiencies" uncovered by their sortie against Krum.

"Are the Death Eaters really that good?" Harry asked.

Sirius grimaced as he sank down onto one of the sofas. "You remember when Snape attacked us here, last year?"

"Yeah," Harry said soberly. "He was good."

"He was. He was flat out better than Remus, who had training from both Mad Eye Moody through the Order and from James and I both. Frankly, even at my peak he would give me a run for my money. Where do you think he got so good?"

"Dumbledore?" Ginny asked.

Sirius shook his head, all hint of humor gone. "Ginny, Harry, Severus Snape was a marked Death Eater. You do not get marked unless you go through an initiation. That initiation at the least involves the torture of another, and usually murder if they have victims. Snape received his initiation after torturing a muggle man for six hours and then killing him. That muggle was Tobias Snape—his own father."

Ginny and Harry shared a long, wide-eyed stare. "He killed his own dad?" Harry finally said.

"Yeah. I never met the elder Snape, but from what Lily told me, the man was a true and right bastard, and probably deserved it. But Snape still killed him in order to take the mark. And he then got training from Voldemort himself, along with all the other inner-circle wizards. And we're pretty sure Voldemort got his training as a young wizard directly from some of Grindelwald's best who managed to escape the tribunals after the war. He graduated Hogwarts the war ended, but Gindelwald still had supporters on the continent he was able to track down. After that, he travelled, searching out training in both magic and magical warfare."

"When did Snape turn?" Ginny asked.

Sirius looked out the window, as if trying to decide how much to say. "We don't know for sure, but I have suspicions. You've heard the prophecy, right?"

"Yeah?" Harry said.

"Well, someone else heard it too, at least a part of it, and that's what prompted Voldemort to attack you. We know Pettigrew told Voldemort that you were a Sport, but someone else leaked the prophecy. Someone who was physically present when Trelawney made the prophecy."

Harry and Ginny both made the connection at the same time. "Snape?"

"He was caught listening to Trelawney and Dumbledore. He went to Voldemort, and then discovered that the prophecy meant the only person he ever liked was targeted. We don't know for sure, but we suspect Snape then went to Dumbledore to try and save her. At least, that's what Zeus believes, and I agree with him. He's supposedly been Dumbledore's man ever since."

"The timing doesn't make sense, though," Ginny said. "Last year, Luna showed us Wizengamot transcripts that said Snape turned spy and did a lot to serve the light. But…but he didn't turn to Dumbledore until right before the end of the war. What did he actually do? He got Harry's parents killed and then felt bad about it, but what did he do to make up for murdering his father and betraying his only friend?"

"That," Sirius said, "is the big question. And the answer is that no one knows."

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading! All three made very good comments helping with the interrogation, and JR actually helped me keep Krum alive.


	28. Mazes and Snakes

A/N: Chapter 27 Review responses are available in my forums.

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**Chapter Twenty-Eight: Mazes and Snakes**

After their training, Harry and Ginny made their way back to Hogsmeade so that the other students would see them and not question where they were. They did their best to hide how sore and tired they were. They did not hold hands, but they walked so close their arms brushed, and they moved in perfect step to the other.

Luna was nowhere to be seen, having stated that morning that she had other duties to attend to, but when they reached the Three Broomsticks they both smiled on seeing Hermione, Ron, Neville and surprisingly Susan Bones sitting at a table drinking butterbeers. They also noticed an Auror nearby, keeping a steady eye on the niece of the Minister of Magic.

Harry caught the eyes of Madame Rosmerta and held up two fingers before he and Ginny made their way to the table. Susan eyed the two speculatively. "So where were you two?" she asked when they sat down.

"Oh, you know, training to be super-powerful wizard assassins," Ginny said in an off-hand manner.

"Uh-huh," Susan drawled. "Did the training involve a snog or two?"

Harry flushed and Ron snorted Butterbeer. Just then Madame Rosmerta appeared. "There you are, dears."

"Thanks!" Harry said, a tad too quickly.

"So, not to be rude because we all do adore you," Ginny said, "but what're you doing hanging out with a bunch of Gryffindors? And Ron."

Ron snorted again, and this time Hermione had to hide a smile as well. Susan shrugged. "Since Auntie took the Minister position, I've had an Auror escort. Usually it's a woman, but sometimes it's a man. I guess Hannah and the gang just don't know…" She tapered off, and her eyes flicked to a table nearby filled with Hufflepuffs.

"What happened to Hufflepuff loyalty?" Ginny said sharply.

"It's just an adjustment period," Susan said.

"Susan, your Aunt's been Minister for almost a year now," Harry said. "How much adjustment do they need?"

For a brief moment, the round-faced red-head looked as if she were on the verge of tears. "I don't know," she finally admitted. "Whenever I walk into a room, everyone just clams up. Hannah told me her parents were afraid to invite me over the summer, and that she couldn't go over to my place. Someone has been spreading rumours that…that I'm a target." She said the last very quietly.

Harry shrugged. "I've been a target since I was fifteen months old ... Still here! So maybe this is where you should hang out."

Susan smiled gratefully at them, and they spent the rest of the afternoon laughing and joking with each other over butterbeers.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Sunday was homework day. It had become a tradition since Harry and Ginny began their training regimen. They gathered all their books and walked to the Library, usually with Luna. Hermione joined them at the beginning of the year after she finally became an integrated part of the new dynamic. Ron only followed if Hermione browbeat him, and was usually the first to leave.

Sometimes others would join them, like Neville or occasionally, some of Ginny's fourth-year roommates. Julie Parkes was the most frequent of the other girls, since Ginny was friendly with but not intensely close to her roommates, though Demelza Robbins sometimes came as well.

They were well into their studying when Susan Bones arrived, this time with a female Auror. She had her book-bag thrown over her shoulder. "Hey, guys," she said, a touch shyly. "May I join you?"

"Of course," Hermione said. They all rearranged themselves for the grateful Hufflepuff, and Susan joined them for the rest of the day.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

On the first Saturday in April, on a bitingly cool but beautiful morning in Hogsmeade, Luna joined them for an intense and painful four hour training marathon inflicted upon them by both Sirius and Adonis. The training was not just coordinated martial arts, but outright duelling that left the three magically and physically exhausted.

When at last they were allowed to relax on a sofa, Adonis quickly sealed the room and then brought out an Omniocular display. The image it showed looked like a typical urban street in London filled with Muggle cars and pedestrians.

"You were previously not aware of this," Adonis began, "but because of our similar roles, the DoM maintains close ties with Box 500 and Box 850."

Harry blinked. "Sir?"

"Sorry, the Security Service and the Secret Intelligence Service. You might know them as MI5 and MI6 respectively."

"Oh," Harry said. "Okay, that makes sense. Like James Bond."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "You are not James Bond, Harry."

"Not yet, anyway," Adonis said with a smile. "But you should know that DoM wizards have actually performed missions both in conjunction with and for Box 850 overseas. That level of cooperation was essential in the last war, and with the new Minister in place we are making every effort to re-establish that relationship. And it's already paid off."

He turned and tapped the Omnioculars and they zoomed into the image to show a black sedan and a small grouping of three men and one woman. The woman had blonde, almost platinum hair. "Is that Narcissa Malfoy?" Ginny asked grimly.

"And Karkaroff," Harry said. Ginny looked and saw that indeed, the Durmstrang Headmaster was another of the men. "I don't recognize the others."

"Sergei Pugach, Ukrainian by birth," Adonis said. "He operates under the Anglicized name of James Pugney, here in Britain. Our analysts believe he is a handler for the Russian SVR. The Bulgarians, additionally, confirmed that he is actually highly placed within Directorate M. The third man, though, is the most troublesome."

"I don't recognize him," Harry said.

"You wouldn't, he's supposedly dead," Sirius said darkly.

"Barty Crouch Junior," Adonis said. "This image was actually captured by MI5 this last June because Pugach was on their watch list. It wasn't until we began making inquiries that we got hold of this picture."

"I thought Barty Crouch killed himself," Harry said.

"That was Barty Crouch Senior," Sirius explained. "It was actually pretty sad. Senior was head of the DMLE during the war and ended up throwing his own son in Azkaban. Junior was one of the most loyal of Voldemort's inner circle, and was with Bellatrix and the Lestrange boys when they crucioed Frank and Alice Longbottom into vegetables."

"The fact he is alive is extremely troubling," Adonis said. "We exhumed his grave and discovered the body of Nancy Crouch, Junior's mother. Somehow, she must have switched places with Junior."

"Krum said that Directorate M was not allied with Voldemort," Ginny said.

"Krum wouldn't necessarily know," Luna pointed out. "Russian agents are rarely given the big picture for fear of leaks."

"But why would Russia side with Voldemort?"

"I think it's more subtle than that," Adonis said. "Russia traditionally has been interested in fomenting civil unrest in rival countries. While magical Britain is wrapped up in its own civil war, British wizards are not a threat to Russian interests. With France, Bulgaria, Italy and Spain watching us, they are less likely to pay attention to Russian inroads in the Balkans and other former Soviet states. They do not share his beliefs or want him to succeed, but by propping him up as a credible threat, they serve their own interests."

"What are the Muggles doing?"

"Pugach managed to slip out of the country, most likely by portkey since we believe he is a wizard. MI5 finally lost the other three in magical enclaves where their surveillance equipment would not work. Now that we know what is happening, we have started our own surveillance, but it's tricky. Narcissa had the Fidelius charm cast on her home after Lucius was sent to Azkaban."

Harry and Ginny shared a long look, and unconsciously held each other's hands.

"We're giving you this briefing because, after your first true mission, it may be necessary to tap you again," Adonis said. "Harry, you may not realize this, but you have actually begun your magical maturity. The display with Krum in the lake was telling, and I'm sure Dumbledore, Karkaroff and Maxime all noticed as well. You converted twelve hundred pounds of water into ice with sufficient speed and strength to accelerate yourself like a torpedo. I can promise not even Krum himself could do that. Ginny, you're not there yet, but with training it may not matter. This doesn't mean to say you're going out on a mission today, but I want you to be aware of the fact that your behaviour during this last year has been very favourable. First, your performance at the Quidditch World Cup, and then, your actions in saving Miss Granger. Luna, I'm including you in that praise. You acted your part as Control very well, and your interrogation was inspired."

"Not to mention scary as hell," Harry added.

Luna shrugged. "Scared men are more likely to talk."

"So are men on the verge of losing their bits," Ginny said.

Both adult men and Harry winced.

"So, new security measures," Sirius announced. He handed Harry a small stack of what looked like fabric patches. "These are tracers. Use a sticking charm to place them somewhere on your person. Skin, please. We don't want you to be able to lose them. Keep them on at all times. I gave you enough to give to your friends as well. I have formed a quick-reaction Auror team available to respond at a moment's notice if we need to. I'll lead it personally."

"Make sure to give one to Miss Bones," Adonis said. "I understand she is a part of your study group now."

"Is that your doing?" Harry asked.

"Madame Bones is aware that the Program exists, though she intentionally does not know details. However, it was mentioned to her aunt that while at school, Susan might be safer with you. And, to be honest, I understand Miss Bones has experienced some isolation due to her aunt's status."

"The Slytherins are spreading rumours that anyone with her isn't safe," Harry said.

"And those rumours are true," Luna said. "The only person who is in more danger at Hogwarts than Susan Bones is you, Harry."

"Consider it a part of your mission parameters," Adonis said. "Make sure Susan Bones does not come to harm."

"I would have done that regardless," Harry said.

"I know," Adonis said with a smile.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The final task loomed closer as the term came to a close. Harry found himself watching Karkaroff and Krum every chance he could, looking for clues as to what they were doing. He and Ginny knew that Karkaroff was a former Death Eater who testified to avoid Azkaban. It seemed like that would have been enough for the other Death Eaters to want to kill him. Yet he had a meeting with Narcissa Malfoy.

And then there was the Russian magical spy.

Harry did his best not to think about it and instead concentrated on the coming task. All the Champions got a preview of the maze in mid-May, a couple of weeks before the task itself. By means of a long tea with Hagrid, Harry even got some clue as to what the maze held.

Of all the dangerous creatures, though, the ones Harry was most worried about were his fellow champions. Cedric he thought was safe enough—but Krum was an outright enemy and Fleur was a wildcard.

He stopped going to classes in the week leading up to the task, with full permission to do so. He spent much of that time in a well-warded classroom, training with Luna. She was as arduous a task-master as Adonis and Sirius, but without any of their sympathy. It just made him work that much harder, until he practically crawled back to the common room every night in exhaustion.

The morning before the task, however, Luna met him outside of the classroom and said, "No more training."

He blinked in surprise. "What?"

"No more training. If you're not ready by now, you won't be ready tomorrow either. Instead, take the day off. In fact, you, Ginny and I should go to the lake."

"What about Susan?"

Luna arched one thin blond brow. "Two girls aren't enough?"

Harry stuttered and turned bright red. "You know what I mean."

"Susan is being watched by Ron and Hermione. Neville is also watching her, though I suspect his reasons differ somewhat from the others"

The idea of a day off from training did have its appeal. He was constantly sore even with the charms he used at night to ease his muscle-pain and the aching of his joints. "Okay, sounds good."

So the three of them made their way out of the castle with a full picnic basket and walked across the broad lawn of the picturesque castle to the shores of the dark lake. Harry conjured a large, thickly stuffed blanket for them to rest upon, and they sat down together. They talked about classes, spells, martial arts and yoga. They talked about Luna and a new potion treatment Zeus was considering for her. They talked about Ginny and Harry's upcoming birthdays, and the gifts they purchased for Luna's fourteenth birthday in April.

And in the end, after eating a lunch, Harry laid back on Ginny's lap while she leaned against a convenient boulder, while Luna sat beside them, and just enjoyed each other's company. At some point Harry was not even aware of, he took both Ginny's and Luna's hands in his right hand, and the three of them simply held hands in silence.

It was too good to last, of course. "What a touching sight," Draco Malfoy all but barked. "Harry Potter and his whores."

"And Draco Malfoy and his whores," Luna said without batting an eye.

Behind Draco, Crabbe and Goyle exchanged a confused look.

"Funny, Loony. Tell me, have you shagged Potter yet, little Loony?"

"I would ask the same of your own whores, but truthfully I think the answer is rather obvious," Luna shot back.

Draco drew his wand. "You filthy blood-traitor!"

"Draco," Harry said as he sat up. "If you curse one of my friends again, it won't be the disarming curse I hit you with. It will be the disembowelling one."

Draco turned his wand to Harry, watching as the slightly smaller boy climbed to his feet. "I'm not scared of you, Potter!"

"That's because you're stupid, Draco," Luna said. "You're also a liar. You're scared to death of him."

"Shut up!" Malfoy called.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Harry asked.

"Only this," Malfoy said. "You're going to die in the last task."

"Okay, thank you for coming," Harry said, forcing himself to calm. "Good bye."

"You think I'm joking?"

Faster than Draco could follow, Harry swept his arm forward and down, striking Draco's wand hand with a bone-snapping crunch before whipping the Slytherin's own wand to his face. Draco cried out and clutched his wrist.

"That's just it, Malfoy. I believe you. But you're the one who should be scared."

Even through his tears, Draco's arrogant pride caused him to lift his chin. "Why? You'll be dead."

"And so will you," said Luna coldly. "If Harry dies, I will kill you, Draco Malfoy. I will peel your skin, one inch, at a time. I will burn your testicles off with acid, and strangle you slowly with your own intestines after removing them from your stomach with a rusty spoon and boiling them in water as you watch. I will make you endure so much pain, that when death finally comes, you'll be thankful."

Draco and his goons stared at her in alarm, and she stared back without expression. "You're insane," Malfoy said. "The Dark Lord is going to kill you all."

"We'll see." Harry took Malfoy's wand and slipped it into the pocket of his robe. "You should go have Madame Pomfrey look at that wrist. Joint breaks are the worst."

Draco turned and ran away with Goyle and Crabbe on his heels. Harry turned to look at his friends when Ginny wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him the most searing kiss either had ever shared. When at last they parted, Ginny said, "That was brilliant, Harry."

"Er, ahhh, thank you. So was that."

Ginny flushed red from her hairline down to her neckline, then backed up, only to be replaced a moment later by Luna, who also placed her arms around his neck and gave him another searing kiss. He felt her tongue slip between his lips as she pressed herself against him. Then she stepped back. She looked from the flushed, stammering Harry to the bright red Ginny. "It seemed like a good idea," the blonde said with a shrug.

Ginny snorted, and then started laughing as she pulled their Control into a hug. Harry grinned sheepishly. "Ruddy hell," he said. "That was two times brilliant."

"So who was better?" Ginny said.

A momentary look of utter terror crossed Harry's face, and suddenly both girls collapsed laughing. The terror morphed into sheepishness as Harry sat down as well. After the laughter faded, Luna turned suddenly serious, as if someone flipped a switch, and said, "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Who was better?"

"How can I answer that?" Harry asked. "You were both brilliant."

Luna looked at Ginny. "I think he needs more samples to judge by."

"I think so."

"Oh hell," Harry muttered. He managed to jump to his feet and run just a split second before the girls caught him, and the rest of the afternoon dissolved into a game of tag, only in the end Luna managed to cast a tripping hex that brought Harry down, and both descended on him.

They started tickling him mercilessly until he couldn't breathe, and when he thought he was going to die, the tickling changed and he found himself kissing first Ginny and then Luna, one on either side, until he thought that might kill him too.

Finally the two girls took pity on him. "Well?" Ginny finally asked.

Harry straightened his glasses, which were crooked and smeared from the snogging, and grinned. "Your kisses felt right and perfect," he said to Ginny. He turned to Luna and said, "Your kisses felt hot and perfect. I don't think I could choose between them."

Ginny smiled and then rolled onto her back, resting against his arm, while Luna stayed on her side in the crook of his other arm, all three now on grass. "Is this what it's going to be like?" the redhead asked. "When we're older?"

"I would hope when we're older we do this naked," Luna said.

Harry choked a little on saliva and Ginny felt her face flushing bright red. "Luna!"

She propped herself up on her elbow and looked from one, to the other. In a completely serious voice, she said, "You two are my everything. Please, whatever you do or wherever you go together, please let me be a part of it. I think I could not live without you."

Harry gently rubbed her back, while Ginny stared at the blonde with the stony face. "Do you think something like that could work?" He asked.

"We will make it work," Ginny said. "I'm pretty sure I want you around."

They both turned to Luna. "And I'm pretty sure we want you around too, Luna," Harry finally said. "You're like our twisted, unhinged guardian angel."

Luna blinked. "I should take offence at that, and yet it is so very fitting, isn't it?" She then shed a single tear as she squeezed her eyes shut. She turned away from them, but hugged Harry's arm to her as she did. Harry rolled onto his side to hold her closer, and Ginny moved around to face her.

Luna did not cry any more, but the gaze she directed at Ginny was intense and quivering. Slowly, deliberately, she leaned over until hers and Ginny's lips met as well. It was a tentative, yearning kiss that lasted only a second. "It is odd," the blonde whispered in a thick voice, "that I desire you as much as I desire Harry. My healers say my physical urges are linked to my condition. That I should not have these urges as strongly as I do at this age. But there you have it. I desire you both very much. Please do not let me scare you off."

"Luna," Harry said, "I don't know how Ginny feels, but having a pretty girl desire me isn't scary. It's amazing and brilliant and…" He ran out of words. "Before I met you two, I didn't think anyone _could_ want me. Just…I don't want to ruin anything, you know? I don't want to look back in a couple of years and say, 'Wish I had waited.'"

"Oh, I understand," Luna said in a more normal tone. "And I do believe Ginny should be first."

Harry glanced at Ginny and saw her blushing brilliant, but the other girl did not disagree either. In fact, he locked gazes with her. "I'm allowed to date at 14," Ginny said. "And that's only two months away."

"Something to think about," Harry said in a very dry voice.

He felt Luna push against him and felt his flush get hotter. "You're almost ready," the blonde purred.

It felt so good he didn't want to move, and so they didn't. Not until the sun set and it was time to return to the castle.

The beetle that was on the rock nearby, and had been through their entire picnic, opened its shell and took flight toward the Forbidden Forest. It made its way into the trees just on the other side of the ward line before shimmering into the shape of a woman. Rita Skeeter grinned evilly as she pulled her Quick Quotes Quill and notepad out and began dictating what would be the most juicy, titillating story of the century.

She never heard the figure until the flash of red light struck her between the eyes. A moment later, both her quill and notepad erupted in flames. Adonis knelt down over the unconscious reporter and smiled. "None of that, Miss Skeeter. _Obliviate!_"

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading! All three made very good comments, and Miles this time around saved me from an embarrassing mistake regarding Susan's relationship to Amelia Bones, while Teufeul made Luna even more scary.


	29. The Third Task

A/N-Chapter 28 Review responses are available in my forums. Also, thanks to Tenchifew for the revised Russian translations. This story was revised 9/3/2011 to show the revised portion.

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**Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Third Task**

The morning of the final task dawned clear, but the air held the promise of the harsh weather to come.

Harry woke and stretched in bed before dawn, which this late in spring was quite early already. He sat up in his four-poster and looked around the room. Ron was snoring away as normal, while Neville, Seamus and Dean remained huddled bumps in their beds.

Harry swung his legs over the bed and stretched again. He felt energized, for some reason that went beyond the tournament. He dreamed the most remarkable dream the previous night; it started as a searing nightmare but then turned into a stunning vision. First Voldemort was there, faceless and menacing from the shadows as he reached out to grasp Harry with a giant, inescapable hand. But then his guardians arrived—Luna surrounded by a blue flame, and Ginny surrounded by red fire—and the light the two girls cast forced Voldemort away.

They turned and as he watched their fires burned their clothes away, leaving them naked and scalding hot. They came to him, and where the fire of their hands touched his own clothes burned away until he was as naked as they were. They began kissing him, one after the other, while their fiery hands roamed wildly over his body. He tried touching them too, but their heat was too great. They could touch him, but he could not reciprocate.

He did not need to. Luna pushed him to the ground as Ginny climbed on top of him, grinding against him until the grinding turned into more, and he felt a small, brilliant part of himself slip inside her body. The fire burned, but the burning felt so good he could not believe it. Ginny's lips covered his, and parted only for her to say, "I love you."

Then it felt as if he was wetting his bed, but it was such an incredible feeling he didn't care. And now, waking up the next morning, the bed was dry and showed no sign of his bladder loosing itself. His boxers were oddly stiff, but….

Harry looked back at his roommates, then down at his boxers and realized what had happened. Then he smiled despite himself. "Gross or not, the dream was brilliant," he whispered.

He showered and afterward stared into the mirror. He remembered Adonis telling him that his magical maturity had begun. He knew it wasn't an overnight process—that it would actually take anywhere from one to three years and paralleled puberty. That was why he leaned forward to examine the downy stubble on his chin and high on his cheeks. It wasn't a beard by any stretch, but they were definitely whiskers.

A muttered word and a pass of his wand and the whiskers were gone. They looked ridiculous anyway. Neville was already shaving every day as he got taller and taller, but this was Harry's first time using the charm. Likely he wouldn't need it again for a month.

He got dressed in a pair of loose-fitting jeans Sirius purchased for him, and a T-shirt. As he finished, he saw that Neville was awake and watching him. "Nervous?" the taller boy asked.

"Yeah, guess so."

"Day feels strange already, doesn't it?"

It wasn't until Neville said it that Harry realized he was right. The day did feel strange. Perhaps it was the promise of bad weather in the future, high air pressure or something, or maybe just the coming tournament. But it felt as if the day were on the edge of something momentous. He couldn't tell if it was a good momentous or a bad.

When he went down for breakfast, the common room was mostly empty—classes were actually over and the only people still studying were the fifth and seventh years finishing up the last of their O.W.L. or N.E.W.T. examinations. And this late in term, only a few tests remained. The only thing keeping the students in school was the third task of the tournament.

He wasn't surprised when Ginny came down just moments after him. Their schedules were so ingrained from nearly three years of training now he doubted she could have slept late if she tried. She smiled at him—a free, happy expression—and gave him a hug. "I had the most delicious dream about you," she whispered into his ear.

"I did too," he admitted.

"Fourteen, Ginny!"

The two turned, astounded, to see Ron slumping down the stairs in dirty, wrinkled robes. His hair was a mess, but he appeared to be dressed.

"What?" Ginny asked.

"You were giving each other googly-eyes," Ron said. "Like you were about to kiss. No dating until fourteen."

Ginny answered by grabbing Harry's head, pulling him down, and kissing him. A lot. Ron's eyes bulged and he started sputtering incoherently as he turned so red his freckles looked black. When at last Ginny finished, she turned to Ron and said, "So there." She then turned and walked out of the room to breakfast.

"Harry!" Ron whined. "That's my thirteen-year-old sister!"

"What? It wasn't my fault!" Then he turned and ran after Ginny.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Harry made sure to eat a larger than normal breakfast, and planned to do the same for lunch. Ron joined them, still sputtering, followed moments later by Hermione and eventually Neville.

Luna joined them toward the end of breakfast without a word, and began eating off Ron's plate.

"What're you doing that for?" Ron said.

"You have too much food," she said with infuriating calm. "Harry, I found a room for us to get ready."

"Get ready for what?" Ron asked, eyes bulging as his brain went in a completely different direction.

"To work out before the task, Ron," Harry said quickly, cheeks flaring. "Just to keep warm."

As he spoke, Ludo Bagman began making his way from table to table, chatting up each of the champions. He finally made his way to Gryffindor and handed Harry a scrap of parchment. "This afternoon, Harry, at three. Be completely ready."

"I will, thank you, Mr. Bagman."

Ludo smiled; the expression looking slightly foolish on the overweight former Quidditch player, and left. "Are you ready?" Hermione asked.

Harry shrugged. "I'm as ready as I can be." He looked around at his friends, and said softly, "I…thank you. All of you. This could have turned out so much different without you all there. I saw how angry people were at first when my name got put in. If not for you, I don't think…well, it would have been a miserable year."

Ron started stammering, trying to find something profound to say, until Hermione patted his hand and smiled at Harry. "You're very welcome. You can thank us later with Butterbeers this summer with the money from your winnings."

"Brilliant," Ron finally managed to say.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Harry spent the day doing a series of light calisthenics or low-key practice duels with Ginny and Luna. Nothing to exhaust him, only to keep him warmed up and ready. Every time he looked at the two of them, his imagination caught them on fire and he had to adjust his trousers.

"So," Luna finally said as she looked from one to the other, "tell me about these dreams you two had."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

When at last it came time for the task to start, Harry walked back to his room and opened the new trunk Sirius bought him for their travels the previous summer. In the center of the chest was a gift that arrived the previous day during his picnic from the girls, from Zeus. It was a dragon-hide vest, likely worth more than most Auror's made in a year. The hide was a dark grey with a line of turquoise running along the tips of the scales. The vest was not solid and unyielding like a plate of armor—rather it felt supple like snake skin.

Harry removed his trousers and pulled on the cuisses to protect his thighs and the greaves to guard his shins. The armor clung tightly to his legs with special sticking charms and straps, and was barely visible as he pulled his trousers back on.

Next he pulled on the main vest of armor and felt again the charms applied to the inside of the skin as it adhered over his T-shirt. He knew the vest, like the other pieces, would expand as he grew. This was the type of armor that would be handed down to his children and grandchildren, it was that well made.

He pulled on the shoulder pieces, which were similar in shape and function to old-fashioned spaulders. They protected his shoulders and extended down to his elbow and clicked right into the vest with an actual hook so a simple finite would not affect it. Next he pulled on the vambraces that protected his forearms. It was in his left vambrace that he slipped his spare wand. Over this, he pulled on his Quidditch robes. The dragon-skin armor was so supple that it did not show under Harry's robes at all, nor did it hamper his movement.

Finally, he pulled on the gauntlets, which were disguised by a thin layer of Gryffindor-red fabric to look like a pair of seeker's gloves. "This is _better_ than James Bond," Harry said with a grin. He finished by stuffing his invisibility cloak into a deep pocket of his robes.

He walked down the stairs and was surprised to find every Gryffindor there waiting for him. He paused mid-step and stared. "They wanted to wish you luck," Hermione said with a happy smile. Beside her, Ginny was beaming.

"Thank you," he said told them all.

"Three cheers for Harry!" Fred Weasley suddenly shouted.

Harry felt his face burning as his housemates began cheering. Before he knew it, the twins had him on their shoulder and were parading him through the common room and out into the hall. Finally they put him down near the stairs.

They walked as a group out of the castle and to the stands that lined the entrance of the maze. The Beauxbatons contingent was already there, as were the Hufflepuffs. The Gryffindor's arrived moments before Krum and the Durmstrang crowd.

With slaps on his back and a chaste kiss on his cheek from Ginny, Harry made his way to the front where the other champions waited. Fleur wore Quidditch-style robes in the powder blue color of her school. Cedric was in his familiar yellow and black Quidditch robes, while Krum arrived decked out in crimson and black. He did not even bother to hide his glare at Harry.

Ludo Bagman and Rufus Scrimgeour walked up to them—Bagman was smiling as always while Scrimgeour looked like he was already tired of the whole thing and ready to go home. "Okay, Champions!" Bagman said excitedly. "The time has finally come. Each champion will enter based on their scores. So, Mr. Potter you will go first; Ms. Delacour, you second; Mr. Diggory will be third; and Mr. Krum, you will be last. You will each be allowed a ten second start for every point you have over the next champion."

As Bagman spoke, Harry did not notice Krum silently cast a spell not at Harry, but the ground under his feet. The patch glowed violet for less than a second, but the light was lost in the flashing of wizarding cameras.

"Any questions?" Bagman asked.

The champions shook their heads, and with his wand in the air Bagman gave the explosive signal.

Harry did not hesitate—he ran into the maze at a full sprint and did not slow down until after he'd turned several corners. He wanted to get well ahead of Krum if no one else. He heard another bang and knew Fleur was coming. The next two bangs came much quicker since the other three were closer in their scores.

The maze was not a joke, this much Harry learned quickly. Hagrid's Blast-Ended Skrewts had grown to an obnoxious size and resisted most spell fire. Harry resorted to levitating the ground under them and flipping the monstrosities over. The sphinx made him stop and think in his best Luna/Hermione mode before he got past. There were all sorts of magical barriers, from dragon vine to an adolescent manticore.

After an hour, he turned a corner and saw Cedric Diggory duelling desperately with an acromantula. Harry didn't hesitate to send a blasting curse to help the other champion out. He was about to go on his way when he noticed a second blasting curse from the other direction.

He stared in shock as the curse hit Cedric right in the back just as Harry's hit the spider. The acromantula screamed in rage at the same time Cedric flew into its face. The acromantula bit reflexively.

Cedric did not even have time to scream.

Harry felt his breath stop as he watched this pinnacle of Hogwarts, fall unmoving to the ground. The spider started to turn when a bright cone of light turned into a ten-foot javelin that stuck between the creature's mandible and buried itself to its end. The spider twitched before falling to the ground near Cedric.

Krum walked around the corner, his face set in a grimace of rage. "I know vat you did to me, Potter!" Krum shouted.

"You abducted a British witch and I saved her," Harry said.

"You interfered. You should not have done that, boy. She vould have come back to you intact. But you interfered. _Ignis!_"

A lance of fire shot toward Harry. He spun away and used a silent _Protego_ to slam the conjured flame into the ground while at the same time casting a string of stunners followed not by an expelliarmus, but rather a bone-crushing hex.

Krum rolled under the stunners and then used his own shield to send the bone-crushing hex sky-ward. He followed with a barrage of spells easily as lethal as the killing curse. He felt three impact his dragon-hide armor against his chest; Krum saw and adjusted his aim for Harry's head. Harry transfigured the ground into a stone wall and then quickly pulled and ducked under his invisibility cloak.

The wall shattered under a powerful blasting charm and Krum vaulted over it in a fluid motion. He was spinning mid-air and cast behind him. Harry ducked his head and let the stunner pass over him without reacting. Krum landed and quickly scanned the area.

Then he smiled and looked right at Harry. "You think your cloak vill hide you, boy?"

"Guess not," Harry muttered. He rolled away as Krum's blood-freezing curse struck the ground that once housed him. He freed himself from the seemingly useless cloak and responded not with an offensive spell, but with an out-ward thrust of the _aegis_ shield.

Krum raised his own shield, thinking it was a curse, and when the two shields touched, both wizards were blasted apart. Harry, however, was ready for it. He landed on his back but did a back roll, came to his feet, and charged forward even while he stuffed his cloak back in his pocket.

Krum landed with a loud huff, kicked his legs up, and jumped back to his feet just in time to meet Harry's foot.

He raised an arm to block Harry's kick, and then howled as Harry's magically enhanced blow snapped his forearm. The Bulgarian champion spun around, squatted, and lashed out with a leg. Harry hopped one-legged over it, spun about and brought his heel down. Krum rolled out from under the blow and snapped out both legs.

Harry had no choice but to turn and allow the kick to strike the back of his leg—otherwise it would have snapped his knee. Even so, it hurt like hell when he fell back, rolled, and jumped to his feet just in time to see Krum perform an advanced bone-healing charm on himself.

"You are better than I thought, boy," the Russian said. "But not good enough. _Avada keda…_oufff_._"

Harry cast a silent stunner in the time Krum took to enunciate the killing curse, and the boy dropped like a rock. He turned to go see if Cedric was still alive when he saw a flash of blue. His arms and legs locked to his side and fell to the ground painfully as Fleur Delacour sauntered up the path. He managed to keep his wand in hand, but could not move to use it.

"Don't bother looking in on Diggory," she said. He thought he heard a note of regret in her voice. "You really are more than you appear, _oui_? Rest assured, my young friend, that I will not hurt you. France has not had a sport in five centuries. By the time we are done with you, 'Arry, you will be singing _Le Marseillaise_ with the best of us, and I will make you very, very happy as you father a whole army of powerful little wizards with me."

Harry's mind was racing as she levitated him, and not just because a foreign witch had him at wand point. She wanted to make babies with him! _Get your mind out of the gutter._ He fought hard to not remember the mound of perfect flesh she flashed at him during the Yule Ball and instead concentrated on the current situation.

"This would have been easier with an _Imperius_ curse, but unfortunately we both know that won't work. If the sight of my bare breast, the _Imperius_ curse and my allure was not enough to make you a slave, then little else short of a total obliviation will do. It will be tragic in a way—having your personality destroyed. But think of all the bad memories you will be losing. And all the happy ones I will give you to replace them."

All thought of making babies with Fleur fell away as he realized the French were going to try and make him one of their own. They were going to remove every memory he had, essentially destroying everything that made him who he was. In a way, it was even more cruel and insidious than Krum just trying to kill him.

He did not feel despair, only a deep, cold rage that started growing within him like an icy fist. Meanwhile, Fleur dropped all pretence of being just a talented student, displaying magic on par with most Hogwarts professors as she deftly and easily dismantled all the obstacles placed in her way. It came as a shock to Harry that she appeared to be at least as good, if not better, than Krum.

She was in fact almost as good as Adonis himself, and the thought frightened Harry.

"You know Krum put a tracer on the soles of your shoes, did you not?" she said as she walked. "I saw the flash. He followed the trail of your footsteps. I watched you fight—you have had some training. But the checking for tracking charms is basic regardless of what branch of government you serve. I'm sure we will enjoy pointing that out to your superiors when they realize they have lost you."

He wanted so badly to scream his rage at her, but her _petrificus_ spell held him stiff and silent, even as the cold rage in him continued to build in his chest, burning with magic.

"Very well, we're here," Fleur said. She let him down gently to the ground, and then knelt down beside him. With strange tenderness, she moved a lock of his hair away from his head. "I see anger in your eyes, 'Arry. I feel your magic fighting me. You are powerful, but you are not a sport yet. Just know that I do not do this to hurt you. I am a patriot. From the moment we learned you were a potential sport, I have been training for this day. I even learned English to speak your language. I wanted to simply seduce you to my side, but of course even as a child, a potential sport's magic would make that difficult. I wish I could sway you with love, for you are a very special boy, and I would love you until you did not care about anything else. But what we cannot have through love, we will have through force. To fail would be to lose everything." She leaned down and gently kissed him. "For what it is worth, I am sorry."

She reached into her robes and removed a simple pocket-watch. She reached her wand hand over to activate the portkey in the watch when the ground beside them exploded.

The blast sent a still petrified Harry rolling like a log. He came to a stop on his back once more just in time to see Fleur cartwheel away with all the physical agility of an acrobat. She came to her feet with her wand at the ready.

"_Suka!_" Krum cursed in Russian. "I knew you vere spy!"

"Oh, bravo._Ty durachok. Ty ne mog by naĭti svoĭ sobstvennyĭ huĭ so spushchennymi shtanami."_

Whatever she said must have hit a sensitive mark. Krum started casting a whole barrage of lethal spells. Fleur deflected some, spun and flipped away from the others with inhuman grace. "I am Veela, you fool," she said, dripping contempt. "Do you think you can beat me?"

"_Ya ub'yu tebya, i vyebu tvoi trup__!"_

"You could not even fuck your own sister, you little troll," Fleur snapped back. She deflected another barrage of curses before launching into her own. The air came alive with magic, and from his perspective Harry could see Krum's eyes widen as he realized just how good she was. If Harry were not paralyzed, he would have laughed at the expression.

It was all Krum could do to shield and dodge the spell fire. Harry noticed a disproportionate amount of the magic was fire-based. She had a definite affinity for flame. The fight seemed so one-sided that he counted down the time when Krum fell.

But then Krum proved that in war, there was no such thing as cheating.

He pulled out a gun from his robe. It looked like a strange pistol, until Krum pulled the trigger. This time it was Fleur's turn to look comical as the tiny hand gun suddenly began rattling off bullets.

No matter how fast, Fleur's cartwheels and jumps could not move faster than Krum's bullets as he sprayed a seemingly unending shower of shells at her. She had no choice but to raise a magical shield as she ran, but her shield immediately began to crack under the intense spray of gunfire.

He saw her eyes widen in realization of her danger. What happened next mystified Harry. She dropped her shield, pointed her wand at him and screamed _"Finite!_" just as at least three bullets slammed into her robes. The concussion of the bullets threw her back off her feet. She raised her hand, and a moment later a small golden watch flew right by Harry's head into her waiting fingers.

Krum started running toward her, firing still more, as she disappeared with a pop. Harry, now freed, did not hesitate to take advantage of Krum's distraction.

The Russian spy turned to Harry, and stopped when he found Harry standing with a glowing wand tip an inch from his face. "_Confringo_."

There was one last second of Krum's eyes widening before his head exploded. The blast was away from Harry and covered the nearby hedge wall in cranial matter. The Russian's headless body fell back, twitching once.

Harry stood still, staring down, as the full impact of his actions hit him. He just knowingly and intentionally killed another human being. He turned away just in time to fall to his knees and vomit everything he had ever eaten onto the ground. When his stomach emptied, he heaved bile, and when that was done he curled up on his side and shivered.

He killed another man. A boy, only a few years older than he was. He did it knowingly, with a curse designed to kill.

Overhead, the sky cracked as the promised foul weather arrived. Cool rain began to fall, first in a few fat droplets, then in a heavy deluge. Harry sat up as the rain began to soak him, and looked at the headless corpse of Krum. He thought of Cedric Diggory, an innocent bystander who never had a chance against two trained, deadly spies.

_Three_ trained deadly spies, he realized.

In the back of his mind, he heard Luna's voice telling him to get up. He did so, and walked back into the main paths that Fleur followed, back-tracking until he finally reached the spider with Cedric. The boy's body was already turning black from the acromantula venom, and emitted a sickening smell.

"I'm sorry, my friend," Harry said. A spot of the water on his face grew warm with tears as he raised his wand and shot red sparks into the air. He then turned and slogged back to the Triwizard cup, which shone brightly regardless of the rain. Harry stared at the hateful cup, then back at Krum.

He pulled his spare wand, placed his first wand on the ground, and said, _"Deletrius."_ First rule—eliminate the obvious clues. He'd be able claim Fleur killed the Russian in self-defense. It would hopefully delay the authorities long enough for him to make his report to Zeus, and with his wand spell-cleansed, the _priori incantatem_ spell would not work. He then pocketed Krum's strange pistol.

He raised his wand and unleashed another tower of red sparks before he grabbed the cup. He had one last glimpse of Krum's body before he felt the navel hook of a portkey. He expected to appear at the front near the stands—that's why they left the cup area unwarded. Instead, he found himself in what could only be a graveyard.

He had a brief look at a familiar face as Narcissa Malfoy said, "Welcome to hell, Mr. Potter."

Before his name even left her lips, a stunner struck Harry from behind and he fell unconscious to the ground.

* * *

**Translations courtesy Tenchifew via review. Thank you!**

_Suka—Bitch_

_Ty durachok. You are a little fool._

_Vy ne…. You could not find your own cock with your pants down._

_YA ub'yu…I will kill you and then fuck your corpse._

* * *

sp

sp

**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading! As always all three made very good comments.


	30. Shade and Pain

A/N: Defense Chap 29 Review Responses are available in my forums.

* * *

**Chapter Thirty: Shade and Pain**

The storm that was pouring over Hogwarts had not reached wherever Harry landed. He woke to a distant rumble of thunder and saw a dark line on the northern horizon, but overhead he saw only a quickly darkening sky.

Training quickly overrode his grogginess. He saw that he was tied securely to a large statue of an angel, one that looked ominous under the circumstances; he saw the graveyard was small, and appeared to be a private lot. On a hill in the distance he saw an old, dilapidated manor. It looked familiar, but he could not place where he had seen it. He saw armor piled on the ground near his feet, scratched and blackened from the tournament. He was surprised to what looked like bullets along the back from Krum's and Fleur's fight. He never even felt them hit.

Then came the people. There were a surprising number of them—Narcissa Malfoy was just one of many. He recognized Sergei Pugach from Adonis' briefing; Krum's 'cousin' was there as well. The two Russians both wore side arms similar to the weapon that, from the weight of it, was still in Harry's pocket.

That was unusually careless of his captors, he thought.

Finally, he saw the last person there and fought down a surge of blinding rage. Peter Pettigrew looked as if he had aged twenty years since Harry and Ginny captured him the previous year. He hunched as he walked, as if carrying a great, terrible weight, though in fact all he carried a bundle in his arms that at first looked like a baby.

The illusion of it being a child shattered when it spoke in a high, reedy voice. "He is here."

"It is done," Sergei Pugach said in flawless Queen's English. "The boy has been secured as promised. I have just received communication from your man at Hogwarts that Krum is dead. Most likely either the French operative or Potter himself. Karkaroff is in our custody."

"Karkaroff is a traitor," Narcissa said.

"He is the price of our assistance, Lord Voldemort," Pugach said without a trace of subservience, responding directly to the dark lord. "Your accounts were squandered, and the Malfoy's estate has been thoroughly emptied because of his recent legal woes and several failed attempts at bribery. You need money to wage your little revolution. Karkaroff is what we are purchasing for that money."

"So be it," the bundle hissed. "Your assistance is appreciated. Wormtail, you searched Potter?"

"Yes, my lord. I found only his wand."

"You checked everything?" Pugach said. "Krum had a spelled micro-UZI that is the property of my government."

Narcissa Malfoy snorted. "Spelling muggle weapons violates the ICW accords," she said.

"The Russian Republic is not a signatory to the ICW," Pugach said. "For which you should be grateful, Mrs. Malfoy."

"Enough," came the reedy voice of Voldemort. "It is time. Wormtail, begin the ritual."

Pettigrew paled to the color of bone and audibly gulped. "Yes, my lord."

"I shall assist, m'lord," Narcissa said. She sniffed one more time at Pugach before walking away from the cleared ground in front of Harry. Pettigrew turned and levitated a large pile of wood, and with a flick of his wand the wood ignited in a strange, sparkling red fire. Narcissa emerged moments later, levitating a massive cauldron and its stand behind her.

She brought the cauldron down onto the fire, and almost instantly the strange, viscous contents began to boil. Pettigrew rubbed his hands convulsively as he lifted the baby-sized _thing_ that was Voldemort and dumped it into the cauldron. He then turned toward the sarcophagus near Harry. The grave had already been opened, and over it Harry could see the words _Tom Riddle_.

Pettigrew levitated a long thigh bone from the desecrated grave to the boiling cauldron and said in a whining voice, "Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son."

The cauldron sparked as the bone fell in. Harry watched in growing horror as Pettigrew then removed a large knife that nearly glowed with severing charms, and placed it to his own right wrist. "Flesh of the servant, willingly given…" his voice cracked, "you will revive your master." He sliced down. As his right hand fell into the cauldron he paled to a ghostly color and fell to his knees.

His lips moved, but no sound came out until Narcissa cast a numbing charm on him. "Hurry, you fool," she said.

With a grateful nod despite her harsh tone, Pettigrew turned to Harry with the same knife. The knife cut with hardly any effort, and Harry fought to stifle the scream of pain as Pettigrew collected his blood on the knife blade.

"I'm sorry, Harry," the foul little man said in a strained whisper.

"Not yet," Harry said, proud of how calm he made his voice sound.

The promise of pain implied in Harry's voice made Pettigrew wince, but he did not stop his chore of collecting blood. He whispered, "Check your pocket," before he took Harry's blood back to the cauldron. "Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foe!" With that Pettigrew flicked the blood into the cauldron.

The magical fire rose up and around the cauldron, engulfing it entirely. Everyone, even Pugach, stepped back from the magical flames. From the midst of it, a silhouette appeared. The air around them screamed and thunder crashed nearby from the approaching storm. Shadows leapt from every grave and coalesced around the fire, which now seemed to form a floating ball over the ground. All sign of the cauldron and wood was gone.

Finally, the flame and shadow came together to reveal a pale, near skeletal figure. It stood with its back to Harry, unmoving for the longest time. Its mere presence made Harry's scar begin to burn like it hadn't since his first year facing the ghost of Voldemort in Professor Quirrell's head. He fought hard to bring his tattered Occlumency shields into place. The pain was so sharp it made his efforts in vain.

It wasn't until the last of the eldritch fire that flickered in the air around Voldemort's reborn body died out that Harry remembered his dream. In his mind, he imagined Ginny and Luna standing in front of him, sheathed in nothing but brilliant flame. Red and blue flickered along the imagined dome of his Occlumency shields, and with that beautiful light he restored his shields enough to shunt most of the pain aside.

As the red haze of agony cleared, he saw Pettigrew slipping a robe over the narrow, pale shoulders of the monstrosity that was Voldemort. "Your arm, Wormtail," Voldemort said.

With a whimper, Pettigrew held up the stump of his right arm.

"Your other arm," Voldemort said, voice dripping in malicious glee.

Pettigrew looked down, flicked his eyes at Harry for the briefest moment, and then held up his other arm. Voldemort ripped the sleeve back to expose a tattoo of a skull with a snake slithering through it. He placed his wand, which must have come from Narcissa or Pettigrew, against the mark.

Pettigrew howled, which considering he barely made a sound as he cut off his own hand, gave good indication of how painful the contact must have been. When Voldemort was done, he turned to the Russians. "You should not be here."

"I agree, Pugach said. "You will find the funds in the account we discussed. If you should need me, my contact information is in the safety deposit box."

"And in return, you shall have Karkaroff to teach your Muggleborns," Voldemort said, with a sneer, "and my word that I shall take no action against Russia or the Eastern Nations it eventually slaves to its will."

Pugach's smile was as vicious as Voldemort's as the Russian wizard, and his guard, disappeared with a twist that indicated a portkey. Moments later, new figures appeared with a series of staccato pops as the Death Eaters responded to their summons.

Harry felt his chest grew cold as he counted how very many there were. Almost a hundred responded within a minute, forming a circle of black robes as dense as a solid wall around the cemetery.

Voldemort looked around the cemetery with an unreadable expression on his serpentine face. "So many?"

"We have been looking forward to this day, m'lord," Narcissa said with a bow. "Since my husband was taken to Azkaban, I have spread the word of your return."

"And where were these many faithful followers in the days after I fell?" he demanded. Harry thought he saw a shuffle among many of the black robes.

"Without you, m'lord, many of us lost our way," Narcissa said. "The path you set before us became cloudy and hard to see. My husband and I never lost faith that you would one day come back to us, and set about paving the way for your glorious return. We were undone, though, when Potter and his ilk discredited Fudge and had Lucius thrown to Azkaban."

"Sweet words, Narcissa," Voldemort said. "You and Lucius were always well paired for your honeyed tongues."

She bowed from the waist and did not rise while he looked at her. Finally, though, Voldemort's attention turned to Potter. "And here he is, our prodigal son, returned to us at last." He moved closer, and Harry could feel the magic radiating off the creature like waves of the ocean.  
"Can you feel him, Narcissa? When you look at him, can you feel the promise of magic within him?"

"He is only what you have made him, m'lord," Narcissa said. "A boy famous only because of you."

"Oh, he is far more than that," Voldemort said as he stepped so close Harry could smell the putrid stench of his breath. "I knew the moment I first saw him as a babe. Do you know what you are, Harry Potter? Do you know what you could be?"

Harry said nothing and instead fought to maintain his shields against the incredible press of the dark lord's magic. Voldemort smiled at him, as if knowing exactly what he was doing, and deliberately reached out to press a thumb to Harry's scar.

His shields shattered. His imaginary Ginny and Luna each screamed and were swept away by the awesome, irresistible power Voldemort brought with his touch. Harry could no more have held his scream than he could have beaten the attack back. In waves of agony that wracked his body and made him convulse, flickers of his past came, swept up and into Voldemort's mind.

Oddly, the dark lord did not seem to care about Harry's Hogwarts years. Rather, he lingered on Harry's first eleven years with the Dursleys, and then the last savage beating he endured from Vernon and Dudley both.

The touch ended, and Voldemort looked at Harry with reptilian red eyes. "Such a life you have lived, Harry Potter," he whispered. "So much pain ... You think I am the villain, don't you? And yet who actually hurt you more? I would have let your mother live. Some Muggleborns are so brilliant that a place can be found for them in the New Order. She was such a one. But she refused, and with her death cast a protective charm the likes of which no mother has ever managed. Even in death, her brilliance shone through in the fact that you survived my curse, while I was reduced to naught but shade and pain. I did not wish to hurt you, boy. Just to remove a threat—like how you removed Krum as a threat."

Voldemort turned his back on Harry, but did not otherwise move away. "So alike we are," he said. "Has Dumbledore told you about me? About the orphanage he found me in? Do you know what orphanages were like in those days, Harry? Did he tell you about the beatings I endured? The abuse? I came to Hogwarts half-starved and beaten like an animal by Muggles who saw me as nothing more than a target of opportunity—I, the last Heir of Slytherin himself. And do you know what Dumbledore did when the year ended?"

Voldemort spun back around and surged forward with inhuman speed, until his cold cheek pressed against Harry's. His lipless mouth whispered directly into Harry's ear in a strange perversion of a lover's secret. "He sent me back, Harry. Every year, he sent me back with no wand to defend myself, so that I would be beaten and starved. Every year. When I was younger and still hoped for the goodness in my elders, I begged for him to help me, but he said no. He said it was for my own good, for the greater good. Other orphans were able to stay at Hogwarts during summers, but never me. Never you. Why is that, Harry? What did we two have in common that would make Dumbledore do that to us?"

Despite the agony caused by Voldemort's touch, Harry's mind was racing with terrifying speed. "We're both Sports," he managed to whisper through gritted teeth.

"We're both Sports," Voldemort sighed. "We are more alike than either of us would like to admit."

"I'm nothing like you," Harry said. "You're a murderer."

Voldemort laughed, throwing his head back as he guffawed. "Oh, Harry you foolish boy. I was a seventh year before I took my first life. How old were you when you killed for the first time? Eleven. And not an hour ago, you put your wand to a student's face and blasted his head off. You are on track to surpass me easily. You even have your own inner circle. Do you really think you're that different than me?"

He spun back, and with a snake-like grin shouted, "_Crucio_."

The agony could not be described. Harry could not even scream—his whole body convulsed as Voldemort's terrifying power condensed itself into a fire that seared through every cell of his body. Only when he lifted the curse was Harry able to scream just from the after affects of the curse.

"Release him and give him his wand," Voldemort said casually. He did not direct his order to any one person, but rather just assumed it would be obeyed. He was right—Wormtail rushed forward and with his left hand, flicked his wand to loosen the boy's bonds and watched as Harry fell to the ground.

It was Narcissa who tossed Harry's holly wand to him, not that it mattered. His legs were shaking with spasms so strong he could not stand on his own yet.

"Not a good position to be in when facing death, Harry," Voldemort said with a strange note of compassion. "I do not wish to kill you, boy. It is like looking at a young version of myself. However, you must die for my victory to proceed. It is necessity and fate that forces my hand, just as it was fate that forced my hand the first time. But I give you this gift, Harry—this last gift. I give you the gift to die on your feet like a man, rather than grovelling on the ground like a child. Can you do that, Harry? Will you die on your feet, or shall I just kill you now?"

Harry closed his eyes and concentrated on the Tai Chi that Luna drilled into him. For wizards it was more than just a matter of muscle control. For wizards it was a means of infusing the body with magic. He did that now, filling the strained, damage muscles with magic until the tremors stilled. With a sigh in relief, he grabbed his wand and slowly stood.

The wall of dark robes shuffled again, and Harry could see a look of astonishment on Narcissa's face. "You see, my friends?" Voldemort said. "Harry Potter truly was born as I was—a wizard of almost unlimited potential. I do not take joy in his death. But like the olden days, when wards could only be powered by the blood of human sacrifices, so too must our future be bought with blood. But in respect for your strength, Harry Potter, I give you another gift. I shall let you fight back. We shall duel, Harry. Do you know the rules?"

"I do," Harry called back, though he winced when his voice cracked in a warble that made him sound ten.

"Then bow, Harry. We must follow the forms, after all."

To buy time to prepare himself, Harry bowed in the formal fashion just as Adonis had taught him. Voldemort did the same, smiling grimly. "And now, Harry, you die. _Avada Kedavra!_"

Only Harry wasn't standing there anymore. He turned and ran not into the gravestones, but toward the other Death Eaters. Voldemort followed him with his wand, cursing without regard to his followers. When the first two black robes fell, the other Death Eaters realized they were in danger from their own leader and scattered.

That was what Harry was waiting for. He pulled Krum's gun from his pocket, sighted on the largest clump of dark wizards, and pulled the trigger.

He was not prepared for the power of the recoil. The gun actually pushed his hand up and he fired several rounds into the air. He stopped while fighting to bring the gun back to aim at his targets. It turned out to be a stroke of luck, as Voldemort had been tracking him and fired a powerful killing curse at where he would have been had he not stopped. Between a veritable blizzard of bullets and Voldemort's killing curses, the clump of eight dark wizards wilted dead to the ground.

"Wormtail, you fool!" Voldemort shouted. "You told me you searched him!"

"I did, my Lord!" Wormtail whimpered back.

Harry did not stop to listen to the exchange; he rolled behind a large gravestone and scanned for targets. It was the hairs on the back of his neck that alerted him to the threat behind him. He spun in place and pressed the trigger of the spelled gun, unleashing a blizzard of bullets that overwhelmed the hastily conjured shield of his sneak-attacker. The black-robed wizard's body jerked convulsively with each bullet that slammed into him, until he fell back dead to the ground.

He barely had time to blink when the headstone he was hiding behind exploded like a bomb. He dropped the gun as that entire arm when numb, and he had a crazy sensation as he somersaulted back without control or intent, until he slammed into the ground on his stomach. For what seemed the longest time he could not even draw a breath, he hit so hard.

Somehow he managed to hold onto his wand through everything. He looked up in time to see Voldemort flowing toward him like a ball of black and white smoke. The dark lord grinned madly at him, clearly pleased by the mayhem. "Ahh, what a brilliant boy you are, Harry!" he said. "What a shame I cannot let you live! _Avada Kedavra!_"

It was pure instinct that caused Harry to flick his wand up and scream the killing curse himself. Voldemort's red eyes widened in surprise as two surges of green death slammed into each other. The resulting explosion sent Harry, Voldemort and all the Death Eaters flying back on the crest of a magical concussion wave that flattened the gravestones and shattered the glass in the manor house nearby.

Harry once again landed hard—this time on his back. He bounced once before coming to a rest. Where his left gun arm had been numbed by the exploding headstone, it now flared brilliantly back to life with gut-wrenching pain. He blinked up at the storm clouds before he forced himself to sit up. In the distance, he saw Voldemort also climbing to his feet; this time the Dark Lord did not look happy at all. Spells were not supposed to collide like that, ever. Magical curses were pure energy and did not physically interact.

"The boy has begun to irritate me," Voldemort said. "Kill him, we need to be moving."

"Damn it, Adonis, where are you?" Harry muttered.

"Here," the air said beside Harry.

Harry fought not to react. "How many?"

"Sirius gathered enough to bleed them," the disillusioned Adonis said. "Can you apparate?"

"Not far."

"Play the rabbit, and then duck behind your cloak. Your part is done here."

Harry nodded, and as the Death Eaters closed in on his position, he apparated to a spot behind the large angel before removing the wadded invisibility cloak from his pocket and hiding. From behind the cloak, he heard Voldemort's roar of rage. "Where is he?"

"He…he disapparated, Lord!" a hesitant voice called back.

"He's only fourteen!" Narcissa said. "How could he…"

"He's had training," Voldemort said. "Probably Dumbledore. Wormtail?"

"Yes, Lord?"

Harry watched as the little rat man shambled to Voldemort, only to be cursed with a relentless Cruciatus for almost four minutes. "You incompetent fool!" Voldemort finally hissed when he was finished. "The Russians told us about the gun, why did you not check his pockets again?"

"I did, Master! I am sorry…"

"Not yet, you aren't," Voldemort said.

Harry jerked, surprised to hear his own words echoed from the Dark Lord. His introspection was broken, though, when he saw a shimmer in the dim light against a nearby tombstone. Sirius's strike team was getting into position.

"How many have we lost?" Voldemort demanded.

"Twelve dead, Lord," Narcissa said.

Surprisingly, the dark lord chuckled. "Still think he is nothing, Narcissa?"

"Lord?"

"It is a shame I must kill the boy, Narcissa. Imagine what a disciple he could be? Two Sports fighting side by side? Never in the history of magic has such a thing happened. It is a shame. Very well, Death Eaters! Collect our honoured dead and prepare to leave. Then…what is that?"

Harry held his breath while all the Death Eaters spun with their wands at the ready. With a growl, Voldemort said, "Anti-apparition wards! We are found!"

At the same time he spoke, twenty curses flew into the large gathering, most finding their mark. As Death Eaters fell, Harry for the first time began to understand just what it meant to be a Sport. With a roar of undiluted rage, Voldemort lifted his hand and swirled it around as if stirring an upside-down cauldron. He did not voice any spell, but the magic he unleashed felt like the concussion of a bomb. All around the graveyard, disillusionment charms blew away as if before a great wind, exposing the startled strike team.

It was a testament to the desperation of the attackers that they continued to press the attack despite being exposed.

It was a grim reminder of the fact that Voldemort had more followers that the strike team immediately began to take losses. Voldemort himself pointed his wand at a nearby Auror and with a flick caused the Auror to explode like a grenade. The shock of the explosion knocked another Auror down, where Death Eaters quickly destroyed him.

Still, those first few seconds of surprise gave Sirius's team enough of a start to truly damage Voldemort's forces.

In the middle of the fight, the Dark Lord's red eyes narrowed, and from his hiding place Harry felt a sudden, driving spike of pain deep in his skull, as if someone drove an ice-pick through his scar. _There you are_, a hissing voice said in Parsletongue.

With a startled cry Harry felt himself picked up and flung into the air. The violence of his motion shook loose his invisibility cloak. He spun around, realizing he was caught in a powerful summoning charm, and saw Voldemort's wand flashing green. Desperately, Harry launched his own killing curse, surprised at how easy it was to truly wish this man dead. As before, the two spells collided in midair, and the explosion caught Harry before he could land and flung him back.

He landed wrong on his left leg and felt the bone snap, but everything else already hurt so much it did little more than add another not to an ongoing symphony. He put his wand to his leg for the bone-mending charm, but felt it take poorly—not a clean break, then. Still, he would be able to walk, however painfully.

He looked up and saw with surprise that Voldemort never fell down. Rather, he wore a satisfied smile on his face. As his people began to disapparate, Harry understood. Voldemort used the explosion caused by their oddly connected wands to buy time; during that time he must have shattered the anti-apparation wards. In the end, he alone stood against the assault team, and even then they could not kill him. He conjured objects to block killing curses, shielded against all others, and with a flourish killed three more Aurors before he at last disappeared with a thunderous pop.

With a sigh, Harry fell back and stared at the overcast sky. Rain slowly began to fall, one drop, then another, until with a crack of thunder, the heavens ripped open. The rain fell so hard he had to sit up to breathe, despite the agony doing so caused. It caused more pain for him to stand, but he knew he needed to find Adonis and report. He had no doubt his killing of Krum would cause trouble, along with…Cedric.

It was an emotionally numb, physically pained Harry who made his way slowly back into the middle of the graveyard. Somber-faced Aurors were tagging bodies with identification spells. Some of the bodies wore the bright-red Auror robes rather than black.

"Harry Potter?" Harry blinked rain out of his eyes as one of the Aurors approached. They grew closer until Harry spotted a young woman with spiked, pink hair. "Are you Harry?"

"Yeah." The first attempt came out as a croak, so he had to try again. "Yeah."

Her heart-shaped face looked sad. "I'm Tonks. You need to come with me, Harry. Are you okay?"

"I'll live. Lead away."

The woman placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and guided him, limping from his poorly-healed leg, through the bodies until they stopped at one in particular. Harry stared down at the body in confusion, not realizing what he was seeing. "That looks like Sirius," he said.

The young Auror sobbed. Harry stared at her and then back down at the dead Auror wearing Sirius's face. "But…but…what's he doing here? He wasn't…"

Suddenly Adonis was there, looking bloody and bruised, with his arm in a sling and his hand blackened. Harry turned to his teacher. "How can that be Sirius? He was leading the team, but…"

"Harry," Adonis said in a subdued voice, "did you really think your godfather would let you go into danger alone? Voldemort killed him. He's dead, Harry. I'm sorry."

"But that's not possible," Harry said as he looked down at the man who had, in the course of the past year, become his father in all but name. "It's just not…he can't be….you're lying!"

"Harry," the woman said, "he was my cousin too. Please don't…"

"You're lying!" Harry said, tearing away from her grip. "You're all lying to me! Dumbledore sent you, didn't he? You're all Polyjuiced! Get away!" He turned to run, took three steps, then screamed as his poorly mended leg snapped again and sent him spilling to the wet, blood-soaked dirt. "You're lying!" he screamed as he pounded the wet soil. "You've got to be lying."

Overhead, the crying sky said otherwise with a flash of lightening, and a crack of thunder.

* * *

sp

**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading! All three made very good comments as always.


	31. Broken

a/n: Chapter Thirty review responses are available in my forums.

* * *

**Chapter Thirty-One: Broken**

The spectator's area of the Tri-Wizard Tournament dissolved into chaos when aurors brought two bodies out of the maze.

Ginny, at Luna's side, gripped her friend's arm when Amos Diggory rushed to the body of his only son and began howling his grief. The second body was covered in blood, and it was the sight of the blood more than anything else which caused the pandemonium.

"Harry! Where's Harry?" Ginny whispered.

"Come on," Luna said in a deathly cold voice. The two girls slipped out of the stands, and as they did so, they noticed Professor Moody also slinking toward the castle. The girls held back, and Luna's eyes tracked the man's movements with pursed lips.

"Luna, what?"

"Why is he going back to the castle instead of helping Dumbledore?" Luna asked, almost to herself.

"What does it matter? We have to find Harry!"

"Sirius has a taskforce standing by with a lock on Harry's tracer patch," Luna said. "Our job is to figure out what happened here."

Ginny shifted her position, swayed by the coldness in her friend's voice. "You're right, Control. Suggestions?"

"We confront Moody. His behavior over the year seems anomalous in retrospect. Come on!"

The two girls disillusioned themselves, oblivious to the fact that such a skill should have been well beyond the abilities of third years, and followed a safe distance behind Moody back to the castle.

He went straight to his quarters, they saw. "What now?" Ginny asked.

"Now, we play the part of two scared little girls," Luna said. "Dumbledore has sent us to find him and let him know what happened."

"Should be easy. I _am_ a scared little girl," Ginny said.

They checked their wands before ending the disillusionment charms and running down the hall yelling for Professor Moody. They plunged into his room just in time to see him close his trunk. "What is it?" he demanded gruffly.

"Professor, Harry's missing!" Ginny said. She did not have to pretend hard at all to put fear in her voice. "The headmaster sent us to tell you. Can you help us? Please?"

"Gone, you say?" the man said. Though he tried with all his might to sound surprised, even Ginny could hear a hint of glee in his tone. "Is that what all the caterwauling was about?" The last statement was proof enough; Moody did not leave until after the bodies were removed, so he should have known exactly what was happening.

"Professor Dumbledore asked us to fetch you, sir," Ginny continued. "Can you come with us?"

"Of course," Moody said. Instead of helping them, his wand flicked into his hand from a hidden holster and a stunner flew toward the red-headed girl.

Ginny had a shield up as soon as she saw his wand, though his stunner was powerful enough to crack it. However, a split second before Moody cast at her, Luna was already in motion. A silver throwing knife slammed handle-first into the ex-auror's artificial eye and sent it flying, while a second knife _thunked_ into the man's wand arm just below the shoulder.

"Damn it!" the man howled, just a breath before Ginny's most powerful stunner sent him sprawling.

"Well done!" Luna said.

"He was checking his trunk," Ginny noted. Luna nodded and moved to the trunk, while Ginny sealed the door and secured Moody. She levitated his body back into the center of the room when she saw Luna staring intently into the trunk.

"What'd you find?"

"Professor Moody, quite naked. I must say, he is a most unattractive man."

As clear as day, the gruff, angry voice of the ex-auror rose up from the trunk. "You're one to talk, you bug-eyed little cow. Get me out of here!"

"If you are truly Alastor Moody, tell me why Gideon and Fabian Prewett died."

"What are you on about, girl?"

"Constant vigilance, Mr. Moody," Luna said. "I will not let you out unless you can tell me why the Prewett twins died."

Ginny walked over to the edge of the trunk and saw that it was so expanded inside it was easily a twelve foot drop down to the naked Moody. She watched as the hideously scarred man sighed. "They died because we bungled into a Ministry Operation by accident and forced open their flank."

"Who is we, Professor?"

"Who are you, girl?"

"Luna Lovegood."

"Lovegood? Xeno's girl?"

"Yes."

"Heard tell you were as crazy as hell."

"I'm feeling much better now, thank you. Who is we, Professor?"

"A group dedicated to fighting against Voldemort led by Professor Dumbledore. Can't tell you more than that, girl."

"Thank you. One moment, please."

It took the girls working together to levitate him out of the trunk. The man summoned his wand and his fake leg from the body of the impostor and conjured clothes with a few flicks the moment he was free, and then summoned his fake eye as well. After he did so, he looked down at his impersonator, then at the girls. "Where are the grown-ups?"

"Playing in the garden outside," Luna said. "Harry Potter has been abducted by this man. I intend to find out why. I also intend to use means that Professor Dumbledore would not approve of. However, I've read your personnel file, and I believe you would not object."

Moody stared with a gaping jaw. "How in the name of Circe's tits did you get my personnel file? There's…" His eyes narrowed, and then looked at Ginny. "Xeno. The DOM has started their damned program again, haven't they? Are you two going to kill me then?"

"If our recruiting attempts fail," Luna said. "However, I doubt they will. You were not recruited last time because you were considered to be too close to Dumbledore. However, Dumbledore was unable to detect your impostor for over a year. I hope that shows that, however loyal you are to him, he does not know you as much as a leader should know his top fighter."

The three of them watched as the imposter's face started to boil as the Polyjuice he obviously used began to fade. Moments later, Moody cursed. "Barty Crouch Jr.? That man should be dead!"

Ginny, though, was remembering the article about the elder Crouch's supposed suicide, one that left the DMLE in a quandary because they could not find the man's wand or his elf—and more importantly the briefing where he was reported seen in Muggle London.

Luna knelt down beside the man and tapped him with her wand. "_Ennervate_."

The man woke with a start, growling threats to have her expelled, until he saw the real Alastor Moody glaring down at him. "No matter," Crouch said. "No matter. 'Tis done. 'Tis done! The Dark Lord has returned!"

"What are you on about, Crouch?" Moody demanded.

"I can feel it!" Crouch said, grinning madly. "I feel my master's summons. He has returned at last. The plan worked! Your boy savior is dead."

Moody leaned over, grunting as he did so, and yanked the sleeve of his own stolen robes up to expose Crouch's forearm. There they could see Voldemort's Dark Mark, black and vibrant and thrumming somehow against the man's arm.

"It was Potter's blood, you see?" Crouch continued, still grinning joyously. "It was all about Potter. Now my master has his blood and his life, and the world will tremble!"

Luna knelt down before the man. "Is Harry alive?"

"No," Crouch said happily. "No, we bled his life to bring the master back. Potter is dead, and you'll be soon as well!"

Luna's sudden, overwhelming violence left even Moody shocked. The blonde girl did not make a sound at all as she jumped on the still-bound man, ripped her throwing knife out of his shoulder, and slashed his throat. Even while blood fountained, she stabbed down again and again, mutilating Crouch's face and upper body. All the while her face was caught in stony visage more chilling than any screams.

"Merlin's balls!" Moody said.

Ginny tackled Luna off Crouch's body and held her down. "Luna, stop!"

Finally Luna screamed, and it was even worse than the silence. It was a piercing, visceral sound that would make banshees duck in fear. It was the sound of utter, complete loss and the madness that resulted.

"Stun her!" Ginny said.

"What?"

"Stun her before she hurts herself!" Ginny said.

"What are you on about, girl?"

"Do it!"

Moody responded with a silent stunner, and the silence that followed left Ginny exhausted. She slumped over her friend's still body, gasping. The gasps turned into sobs as Crouch's words sank in. "Oh Harry," she whispered.

"You two need to get out," Moody said. "I can explain this if I need to. I escaped and overpowered him with a knife I found."

Ginny pushed herself to her knees and looked down at her blood-splattered friend. Even unconscious Luna's face looked pained. "Harry's dead."

"Stupid girl, you don't know that," Moody growled. "Crouch wasn't there now, was he? How the hell could he know? Nothing's sure 'til you've seen the body, and even then it's best to give it a whack or three to be sure. Now get out of here."

Ginny pulled her lighter friend into her arms, struggling only a little to carry her. "Disillusion us, please," Ginny said.

"Fine." He performed the charm on them both and then quickly undid the wards and spells on the door to allow them to go. Almost the moment the door opened, a pair of aurors arrived. "Moody!" Kingsley Shacklebolt said. "What…" Then he saw the body. "Is that…what the hell happened?"

"Get in here and I'll tell you," Moody said. "It's a long, bloody story."

Ginny was already out of the office, unnoticed by the distracted aurors. Her arms trembled under Luna's weight, but she didn't dare stop until she reached the courtyard. Once there, she placed Luna down and then levitated her the rest of the way to the secret passage that would take her to the Shrieking Shack.

She couldn't help her cry of relief when she found Remus Lupin there waiting for her. She had the presence of mind to place Luna gently on the couch before she ran to the werewolf and hugged him, sobbing.

"It's all right," Lupin said as he held the distraught girl. "The strike team left as soon as they were able to get a solid fix on the tracer."

Ginny, between sobs, told Remus what happened and what Crouch said. "Moody was right," Remus finally said. "Crouch wasn't there. No battle plan survives the first shot, and we both know Harry is no slouch. And with a twenty-man strike team, he'll have support this time. Just have faith. Now, let's go check on Luna."

It was dangerous staying in the Shrieking Shack instead of going to the castle, but Ginny could not even think about returning to her dormitory without word of what happened. She sat on the couch, cradling Luna's head on her lap, while Lupin paced the room. Finally, a little after midnight, the Floo flared and Adonis walked out.

His robes were burned and tattered from obvious battle and his arm was in a sling, but it was his face that scared Ginny the most. He saw the girls on the couch and smiled sadly. "Harry's alive," he told them immediately. "He's been taken to the Ministry for a limited debriefing and treatment. We'll have the full debriefing tomorrow."

Ginny collapsed over Luna, cradling the girl's head and weeping with relief. "What else is there, Adonis?" Remus asked cautiously.

"My friend, I'm so sorry," Adonis said. "Sirius was killed in the battle."

Ginny sat back up, gasping, while Remus staggered as if struck and collapsed into a nearby plush. "Killed?"

"Voldemort had far, far more followers on hand than our initial estimates indicated. It appears Narcissa Malfoy is actually a more effective recruiter than her husband was. In addition, from initial reports he might have been getting help from the Russians. Harry had to kill Krum in the maze. It appears the Russians were actually after Karkaroff for some reason."

Adonis himself collapsed wearily onto one of the chairs around the conference table that took up much of the room. "What happened to Luna?"

Ginny and Remus quickly filled him in on what happened at Hogwarts, and Adonis's face grew more and more bleak. "Remus, please get Ginny back to the castle. Ginny, you were looking for Luna but could not find her. Remus, you were simply on the grounds to watch the tournament and support Harry. Dumbledore could not find fault in that. I'll take Luna to Zeus; she'll need to go back on her potion regiment until we can get Harry to her. It's been years since she's had a complete break like this."

"Will she be okay?" Ginny asked.

Adonis looked somber. "I hope so, Ginny. Go now. I'm sure the whole castle is looking for you."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

In an uncomfortable wooden chair in an empty hall in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Harry Potter sat with head bowed. The last two days were a blur of hospital beds and debriefings. Not once did he see any of his friends; instead he spoke to auror after auror until he ended up screaming himself hoarse; he gave penseive memories to Adonis and the official face of the Department of Mysteries after the standard DMLE debrief was over and screamed himself hoarse again at Adonis for not…doing whatever he had to do to save Harry's Godfather.

"Harry," Adonis finally told him, "Sirius was a well-trained, capable fighter. It was a bad situation. We should have backed off as soon as we saw we were outnumbered, but no one was willing to abandon you there. It was Sirius's decision as much as mine to keep fighting. I didn't even see him fall—we were separated. I know that's small comfort, but he died fighting to save you. Scream all you want—we understand. Be angry. But when you're done, you need to accept that soldiers die in war, and not all of them are going to be strangers."

When the worst of the anger faded back into dull numbness, he occasionally picked at food the now pink-haired auror brought him. And when all that was done, he wound up on an uncomfortable wooden chair in a featureless hallway, staring at the floor and wondered for the thousandth time how Sirius could be dead.

On the other side of the door, Albus Dumbledore was trying with all his considerable power to send him back to the Durlseys, Harry was sure.

The creaking of the door alerted him to look up just as the pink-haired auror, Tonks, stepped out. "They're ready for you, Harry," she said gently.

He stood, ignoring the minor aches and pains from his recently healed injuries, and followed Tonks through the door, down a narrow hall, and finally into a small conference room where the adults deciding his life sat.

Amelia Bones sat at the head of the oval-shaped table. On her right sat a pensive-looking Arthur Weasley, while facing each other across the table sat Albus Dumbledore and Algie Croaker. Harry noticed Dumbledore sat on Bones' left side.

Harry had little dealing with Croaker; he knew the man served as the public face of the DOM so that Xeno Lovegood could remain hidden. He knew that Croaker followed Lovegood's directives absolutely, but was also smart and skilled enough to lead when he had too.

"Hello again, Mr. Potter," Minister Bones said as Tonks showed him to the seat opposite her before leaving the room. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," Harry lied. "Thank you."

"Mr. Potter…Harry, I know this is a difficult time for you. I cannot tell you how sorry I am for your loss. Sirius was many things, but I know for a fact that he loved you with all his soul. As much frustration as he's caused me over the years, I find that my life was richer this last year having him back."

All the hard-fought control cracked a little. "Thank you," he said shortly, fighting to control his raging emotions.

"As you know," Amelia began, still speaking with deep compassion, "Sirius was your legal guardian. Upon his appointment he caused your parents will to be unsealed and probated. The only other guardians named were Frank and Alice Longbottom, who are unable to assume the role. In the absence of a named successor guardian, this panel has been gathered to name your new guardian until you achieve a satisfactory set of scores on your OWL examinations and attain age sixteen. At that time, you will have the option to petition for emancipation."

Still fighting the unbearable waves of rage and sadness, Harry placed his hands on the table and gripped his fingers together until they turned white. "What are my options, Madame Minister?"

"Your closest living relatives remain Petunia and Vernon Dursley. However, despite some objections to the contrary, I personally contacted them regarding you. I found them to be…"

"'Miserable excuses for humanity' was the term you used, Amelia," Arthur said helpfully.

"Yes, that about sums it up. In essence, they have washed their hands of you and demanded you not be returned. Although it is not germane to this discussion, I was wondering if you could shed light on that."

"Madam Minister…" Dumbledore began, but Harry cut him off.

"They hated magic, and they hated me."

"Hated you, Mr. Potter?"

"My Hogwarts letter was addressed to the cupboard under the stairs," Harry said.

Bones narrowed her eyes and very openly stared at Dumbledore. "I see. Thank you for clarifying that. So, to our point today. Where are you going to live for the next year?"

"With the Weasleys, of course," Harry said in a sudden flash of insight.

"Oh?" Amelia said. A corner of her mouth quirked up.

"That's why Mr. Weasley is here. Everyone else in this room knows what I am except for him; there is no other good reason for him to be here since we are not directly related."

Dumbledore's face was impassive, Harry noted, but one brow did seem to twitch.

"An interesting thought," Amelia said. "Aren't you dating his daughter?"

"No, ma'am. Ginny isn't allowed to date until she's fourteen."

Arthur coughed and covered his mouth, effectively smothering the smile there. Amelia nodded. "Susan has a similar rule. Unfortunately for my state of mind she's fifteen. However, she speaks very highly of you, Mr. Potter. But there are some concerns. From your testimony, you killed Victor Krum."

Harry glanced at Dumbledore, and then to Croaker, who shrugged. "He knows what happened afterward, Mr. Potter," the old Unspeakable said. "As chief warlock he had a right to review all reports and testimony regarding the auror action that evening, and how they came to be there after Sirius Black placed a tracking charm on you."

_Auror action_; Dumbledore still did not know about Adonis. "I see. Yes, ma'am, I killed Viktor Krum after he killed Cedric Diggory and attempted to kill me. He also shot Fleur Dleacour with an enchanted muggle firearm, but she apparently had an emergency portkey and was able to escape."

"How does that make you feel?"

"I threw up."

"And now?"

"Now, I just feel dead inside."

Arthur's smile faded as he looked at Harry. "You know Molly and I would love to have you, Harry," he said gently. "You're already like family."

"Thank you," Harry managed to say.

"There is more, though, Harry," Amelia said. "I understand that last year you had an altercation with Professor Snape, and following that made a request to leave Hogwarts. Whatever also may have been said during the meeting that followed, your godfather actually had a petition with the Salem Witches Institute to allow you to transfer, and that application had already been approved by both the American and British ministries for your next year. I signed the approval personally."

Harry closed his eyes to fight down another swell of emotion—Sirius had done it. He never told Harry, but he must have done it. He was willing to let everything get thrown out the window so that Harry could have a chance to live a normal life.

Dumbledore could not have been happy with the Weasleys since Arthur chose the Ministry over the Order, but he could live with it in return for Harry staying. "So if you cancel the application," he said, "Professor Dumbledore won't fight Arthur's appointment as my guardian in the Wizengamot."

Croaker chuckled. "Not as subtle as you thought, eh, Albus?"

"It is important that you stay at Hogwarts, Harry," Dumbledore explained. "You are a leader there, a bastion against the dark."

"Frankly, Headmaster, you wouldn't need a bastion against the dark if you didn't allow so much darkness to exist there in the first place." Though Harry knew he should have stopped while he was behind, he found once he started his building anger would not let him stop. "Snape is a vile, despicable man. You say he turned spy for you? When? What did he actually do for you? He didn't turn until after he gave the Prophecy to Voldemort and condemned my parents to death, and the war was over a week after that. So what exactly did he do to make up for the crimes he committed as Voldemort's servant? What did he do for you to make up for condemning my parents to death and murdering his own father?"

"This meeting is not about Professor Snape, Harry," Dumbledore said coolly.

"Although rest assured we will look into those questions," Amelia said smoothly. "Most especially, Headmaster, if we do not see an immediate improvement among OWL and NEWT scores in Potions for students other than Slytherin." She turned her attention back to Harry. "Would you like to live with the Weasleys, Harry?"

"I don't want to be a burden."

"Harry, I don't know if this will impact your decision, but Amelia has offered me the position as Senior Undersecretary of Magic, and I've accepted. It is a significant pay increase, more than enough to cover any expense you might think you bring." Arthur said. "It'll be fine."

Harry nodded. "Then yes, if given a choice they would be the best family."

"Very good," Amelia said. "Given the school year is over, Arthur will take you to the Burrow straightaway while we finish the paperwork. You might also be interested to know that you have been declared the winner of the Tri-Wizard tournament. Your winning galleons have been placed in your trust vault."

"Thank you, Minister," Harry said, trying his best not to sound as empty as he felt.

* * *

sp

**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading!


	32. The Burrow

A/N: Chapter 31 Review responses are available in my forums. Thank you.

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**Chapter Thirty-Two: The Burrow**

Harry emerged from the Floo with only a slight trip, rather than his normal full-out tumble. He was fully expecting a crushing hug, but instead found the cluttered home devoid of all Weasleys. He stepped aside as Arthur followed.

"Come have a seat in the kitchen, Harry," Arthur said briskly. "I think we should talk a little, just the two of us."

Harry, a little nervous, followed his new guardian into the kitchen and sat at the proffered chair. As he did so, Mr. Weasley went to the spelled icebox and removed a pair of butterbeers before joining him at the table and handing one of the bottles over. "It's been quite the shocking few days," the Weasley patriarch said he opened his bottle and sipped.

"Yes, sir," Harry said carefully.

"Did you know that before this morning, I didn't even know what a Sport was?" Arthur spoke with a note of wonder in his voice. "And little Ginevra… Dorcas must have lied right there and then about her Miltventor score when she was a baby."

"They lie about the scores for national security," Harry said.

"Yes, yes. So I was told. That you've been training very closely with my daughter, and Lovegood's girl—that was quite the surprise. Luna is quite insane, did you know? She almost killed Percy when we visited for her tenth birthday. He was being his usual self when he made an unfortunate comment on not doing proper protections during spell research. I love him, but he is an arrogant child. She took the knife used on her cake—still had frosting on it—and did her damned best to cut his throat. Didn't scream or make a sound at all. Truly it was one of the most frightening things I'd ever seen, and I banned my kids from seeing her again after that. Now I find out she has been working closely with my little girl for the past two years."

At last the anger Harry was waiting for surfaced in the tone of Mr. Weasley's voice. "Damn you, Xeno," Arthur whispered.

"Mr. Weasley -"

"It's not your fault, Harry. Not at all. I can see that you care for Ginny—that was obvious last summer and over the holidays. It's just hard for a father to learn that his own government has been secretly training his thirteen year old daughter to be an assassin for the past two years."

"If not for that training, Mr. Weasley, I would be dead. If not for that training, Hermione Granger would have been assaulted, possibly even killed when Viktor Krum abducted her after the Yule Ball."

With quiet rage, Arthur said, "It is not the place of children to fight their elder's battles, Harry."

"A prophecy and this scar say otherwise, sir. At least they're helping me learn to fight. Dumbledore just wanted me to go and die."

Arthur closed his eyes and turned away from Harry, staring intently out the small window over the sink. "It's still not right, son."

"I know, sir."

They sat in companionable silence for a moment. "Is Luna a risk to my daughter, Harry?"

"Luna would die for Ginny; she would kill for Ginny. She would never hurt Ginny."

"And I understand you convinced my youngest son to take an Unbreakable Vow?"

"It'll protect him. Snape actively uses Legilimency on us."

"It was Luna who attacked Snape, wasn't it?"

"I'm not sure I should answer that, sir."

For a moment Arthur looked as if he would explode, but then he sank back into his chair. "What a tangled web we weave. What am I going to tell Molly?"

"Nothing, sir."

"Excuse me?"

"Ginny and I are active assets of the Department of Mysteries. Our status as such should only be disseminated to those who _need to know_."

"You're starting to sound like Ms. Granger."

"Loads of official debriefings over the past year, sir."

"I see. And you don't think Ginny's mother needs to know her daughter is being trained as an Unspeakable agent?"

"How do you think she would react, sir?"

Arthur chuckled without humor. "Good point ... Poorly at best. Harry, how can I, as a good father, allow this to continue?"

Harry was surprised by the shaking in his hands and discovered a new emotion breaking through the dead haze of his loss; the thought of not having Ginny _terrified him_. Fighting hard to keep his voice calm, he said, "There is a prophecy that says I am the only one who can kill Voldemort, and that one of us has to kill the other. Voldemort himself said he had to kill me; he said he had no choice. I can't…" His voice caught as he struggled with the words. After a few convulsive gulps, he managed to say, "I can't face him without her. She's…she's a part of me. I need her. Please don't take her away. I don't think I could…" He gave it up and convulsively gripped his still un-opened bottle of Butterbeer.

Arthur pushed himself quickly to his feet and paced about the kitchen, hands behind his back and face down as if lost in the deepest thought. "What's your relationship with my daughter, Harry?"

"She's my partner, sir. I can't imagine having to do anything without her."

"Have you been intimate?"

"What? No sir! Ron said we couldn't even date until we were fourteen."

The fireplace exploded in green fire as the entire Weasley family spilled out. Arthur sighed and said, "We'll talk more tonight. Just know that whatever else is true, I am very glad you're here, Harry, and that I'll do everything in my power to protect you."

"Thank you, sir."

Their conversation was cut short by a red-headed missile that wrapped its arms around his neck with a scream of "Harry!"

The blow almost knocked him out of the chair. A moment later Harry felt moisture in the shirt Tonks had fetched for him that morning, and looked down in surprise to see Ginny bawling on his shoulder. Over her head, he watched as Molly, Ron, the twins and even Hermione stepped into the entrance of the kitchen. Hermione's eyes were red-rimmed as she stood by Ron's side.

Molly took charge as she always seemed to do, and clucked her tongue. "Now Ginny, let the poor boy breathe."

Ginny backed up and wiped her eyes; she said nothing, nor was there any need—he understood well enough. A moment later he was swept into the Weasley matriarch's crushing embrace as well. "Welcome, Harry," Mrs. Weasley said. "We are so happy to have you here. I hope you'll be happy here."

"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley."

"Okay, now, everyone out of the kitchen. It's time to prepare for dinner."

The family, as normal, made their exodus outside since there was so much more room outside than in. They gathered around the table in the back and settled in to enjoy the day. Harry accepted a silent hug of condolence from Hermione, while Ron shook his hand with a sad, slightly confused expression. Nobody mentioned Voldemort or Sirius, but instead just sat in companionable silence, while inside Molly Weasley cooked.

That night Harry discovered a side effect of Arthur Weasley's new position at the DMLE. "We all have our own rooms now," Ron said with a smile. Indeed, a judicious use of expansion charms resulted in a whole new bedroom next to Ron's at the top floor of the house. Inside the still very small room, Harry found his school trunk, plus a second trunk he assumed came from Grimmauld Place.

He opened it up and looked down at bundles of clothes and books, and an Irish National Quidditch jersey Sirius bought him the previous summer. He stripped off his own shirt and put the jersey on.

A knock at the door brought his attention to Arthur, and behind him Ron, Hermione and Ginny. "Kids, I'd like a quick word if you will. Harry, may we come in?"

"Of course, sir."

When the four of them were settled on the bed (a new bed, Harry noted) Arthur smiled down at him, though it was an oddly firm smile. "Look at the lot of you, growing up so fast," he began. "Growing up too fast, I suppose. There's really…well…to get right into, then. The rooms have all been warded."

"Warded against what, Mr. Weasley?" Hermione asked.

Arthur blushed. "Well, er…."

"Us," Ginny said, flushing brilliantly just like her father. "You can't be alone in Ron's room, and I can't be alone in Harry's room. Or vice versa."

"It's more age and gender based," a genuinely embarrassed Arthur said, "but yes, that's the crux of it. Unless the door is open, of course."

Hermione's expression was almost comical as her lips formed a silent "O" as a furious blush worked its way up her face. "Mr. Weasley, we're not even…"

"It's a general ward just to keep things appropriate," Arthur said quickly. "I just wanted to let you know so there won't be any…misunderstandings. Hermione, I understand your parents will be picking you up tomorrow at the Leaky Cauldron, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"Very good. Harry and I will escort you before we go on to Gringotts. We have some business to attend to there, regarding…well, his godfather."

"I understand, thank you," Hermione said.

"Well, that's it. Have a good night." He turned and left the four mortified teens sitting in silence.

A moment later, Hermione started laughing hysterically and leaned against Ron's shoulder. Ron looked nonplussed for a moment before he started chuckling. Harry smiled, but wasn't able to summon the energy to laugh. Then he felt a small, warm hand, take his, and looked over at a grinning Ginny. "So much for my plan to ravage you tonight," she said.

Ron jumped up. "Ginny!"

This made Hermione laugh even harder, until she fell off the bed entirely. "Oww, my bum!" she said, and this time even Harry had to laugh. Although he was too young to be that self-aware, the company of his friends was the best medicine for his wounded soul he could have asked for.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

They saw Hermione's parents across the street from the Leaky Cauldron. Since the Grangers could not even see the pub without Hermione to guide them, they used other landmarks to find their way and wait. Hermione gave Harry one last hug and said, "I'll be out of the country most of the summer. But don't let that stop you from writing."

"I won't," Harry promised. He shook hands with Hermione's parents, praising their daughter until her blush threatened to overflow, and then waved until the Grangers' taxi was out of sight.

"Are you ready, Harry?" Mr. Weasley said.

"Yes, sir."

Whatever Harry was expecting at the bank, it wasn't a small conference room with an annoyed looking goblin. Mr. Weasley came in as well, looking somber as the Goblin went over Sirius's estate. It was not a true will reading, which actually occurred the previous day for the named adults. Mostly there were bequests made to various people, including a large gift to Amelia Bones for, in the words of the bequest, "What could have been if I'd been the man I should have been."

The bulk of the estate and the house at Grimmauld Place went to Harry. "The Black Family took several financial hits during the last war," the goblin summed up dryly. "While they were cash rich, their estate and investment holdings were profoundly reduced through liquidations and seizures. The property at Grimmauld Place represents the last real property owned by the Black Family. The vault did recently receive an influx in gold—the result of a Ministry settlement of eighty thousand galleons and another almost million galleons resulting from a wager. This brings the total contents, less bequests and gifts, to one million and nine hundred thousand galleons. While impressive, this amount is roughly half the value of the Black Family fortune before the war against Grindlewald."

Harry blinked in surprise at the reduced fortune. Still, almost two million galleons translated into many millions of pounds, so he knew he would not be starving. The rest of the meeting was consumed by a list of old family treasures that were being placed in Harry's trust vault, since Sirius did not put any age restrictions on his gifts, whereas the Potter family trust did have age restrictions.

At the end, he said, "Sir, since Mr. Weasley has been appointed as my guardian, isn't he eligible for a stipend from my trust vault?"

"Mr. Weasley refused the stipend, Mr. Potter."

Harry turned to look at Arthur, who smiled. "We don't need to be paid to take care of you, Harry. It's our privilege to do so."

Harry thought about how best to phrase his desire. The Weasley's were too proud to accept charity—maybe they would understand he was the same. "Mr. Weasley, please accept the stipend. I feel indebted enough to your family just for your affection and care. I…feel uncomfortable with the idea of indebted to you financially as well. Please, take the stipend. It is the least you deserve."

Arthur flushed, but finally nodded. "Very well, Harry. Thank you."

Finally, their business finished, they left the bank and walked down the alley. As they did so, Harry noticed how all the eyes of the alley seemed to follow his progress. Whispers ran ahead of him, which soon turned to open conversations. "Is it really him?" "Not much to look at considering." "They say he faced You-Know-Who by himself and lived." "He killed two of the other Tri-Wizard Champions. The boy's a murderer."

Harry turned to the source of that last statement and saw a clump of older, bearded wizards glaring at him openly. "Ignore them, Harry," Arthur said softly.

"Who are they?"

"Malfoy's supporters from the Wizengamot. Ignore them—they have lost the power to do more than just talk. Amelia has seen to it."."

Finally they made it to the Leaky Cauldron, and from there, back to the Burrow.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Two days after Harry moved in with the Weasleys, he, Ginny, Ron and Arthur walked down the tree-strewn path until they reached the Rookery. From the outside, it looked just like any other wizarding home. The house itself was oddly shaped and seemed to violate the laws of physics in how it leaned over, much like the Burrow. The home was surrounded by a large garden filled in equal parts with food-producing and magical plants.

The wards, however, told a different story. Even Arthur could feel the wards wash over his skin as they stepped past the threshold of the Lovegood Estate. They continued walking until they reached the house itself. On the porch, Luna Lovegood sat in an oversized rocker, her face completely impassive, her hands twirling a silver throwing knife absently.

Arthur saw the knife and narrowed his eyes. "Miss Lovegood, is your father home?"

She ignored him, staring into space with a dead expression.

"She's on a fairly powerful potion right now, Arthur," came an old voice from a window by the front door. A moment later, Xenophilius Lovegood stepped out. The man was not dressed like a wizard at all—he wore dark slacks and a light gray polo that made his thin, wiry frame truly stand out. "The last few days were quite a trial for us all."

Harry and Ginny shared a look before they stepped past the elder Lovegood and knelt on either side of Luna. Though she ignored everyone else there, she blinked and looked at the two of them. "How remarkable," she said in an empty voice. "Are you really alive, Harry?"

"Yes, Luna, I'm here. Ginny and I are here."

"Oh, very good," she said. "I had such bad dreams."

Arthur watched wordlessly as his only daughter and his new ward gathered Luna from the rocking chair and guided her inside the house with a familiarity that spoke of many hours together. "Ron," Arthur began, "perhaps you should…"

"Go home," Ron said with a wry smile. "When the three of them get on like that, I might as well not be there. Mum'll have something to do for me."

Arthur gave his son a proud smile. "Yes, I'm sure she will. Thank you."

"Sure. Hey, Dad?"

"Yes, Ron."

"I…I trust Harry." With that short, but powerful endorsement, Ron turned and walked back to the Burrow.

After he was gone, Arthur turned back to a man he thought he'd known for twenty years. "Head Unspeakable Lovegood."

"Senior Undersecretary Weasley," Xeno said with a firm nod. "Come, I'd like to show you something."

Arthur allowed himself to be led into the home. He was expecting the insane clutter of the Burrow based on the outward appearance of the home, but the inside of the house was immaculately clean and terribly Spartan in furnishings. He was most surprised to see a blinking screen in one side room that could only be a Muggle computator, or whatever it was called.

"How are you able to have working Muggle things in your home?"

"The room is magic free," Xeno said, "and we had the house wired for electricity and the internet two years ago, when we began researching why a national treasure was being starved and beaten. I assure you other Ministries are already online—not all of our enemies are domestic, and not all threats are purely physical."

This was not what Xeno wanted him to see, though. Rather, they continued through the house until they reached the back garden. Arthur was surprised to find a training course on par with anything the Auror Academy had access to. In the middle of the course, on a bench, sat his daughter and Harry, with Luna between them. They were holding the blonde girl tightly and rocking her.

"What are you doing to my kids, Xeno?" Arthur asked softly.

"I'm shaping them into the most powerful fighting force the world has ever known," Xeno said. He spoke with firm conviction. "The last known Sport was born in Australia in 1951. The Australian DOM paired him with a 99th percentile witch and trained them when they were in their late teens. The pair of them, by themselves, held off an incursion of Maori dark wizards for a week during the late Seventies before an ICW taskforce intervened. They quite literally saved their country single-handedly. They're happily married with four children, all of whom are above 90th percentile for magical strength. In fact, I believe he is in line for the Prime Minister's position there."

"You mean Edward Grayson?" Arthur said, blinking. "I knew he was powerful, but a Sport?"

"Dumbledore's equal at the very least," Xeno said. The old wizard spoke softly, while he stared at the three kids in the yard. "If you ever saw them together, you would understand. The two of them, Grayson and Dumbledore, openly despise each other. When they are physically close at ICW meetings, their clashing auras have been known to make grown wizards faint dead away. Though Dumbledore would never admit it, I personally suspect that clashing magic may in some small part have influenced Dumbledore in placing Harry with the monsters he did."

"Surely you don't believe that!"

"We are magical beings, Arthur. You know that. Magic influences our emotions as surely as our emotions influence magic. I've been studying magic itself for the whole of my life, and I've seen it happen. Truly powerful wizards very rarely ever get along, if they are not directly related. But the opposite can be true too—sometimes a wizard's magic can fit so perfectly with another's that they become the perfect match."

Arthur blinked and looked back out at his kids. Luna had visibly wilted against Harry, clinging to him, even while with one hand she held Ginny's arm. "So what happened to Luna?"

"Barty Crouch Jr. told her Harry was dead. She lost control and killed him before Moody stunned her at Ginny's request."

Arthur shivered. "How can you allow her to be at Hogwarts, Xeno? She is a terrible risk to all the other kids there."

Xeno bowed his head. "She's my only child, Arthur. She's all I have left of her mother, and her mind... Her mother was a genius as well, but Luna's mind is like a rapier—sharp and deadly. It took the DOM healer and my staff to make me see what a magnificent tool for the country she could be, if we could just…save her soul. With Harry and Ginny as her anchors, she actually has a chance to lead a mostly normal life. She acted only because she thought Harry was dead. Since then, we've kept her on a powerful calming potion. But now that Harry and Ginny are here, it won't be necessary. They'll take care of her. Now, have a seat. You deserve to see what we've been doing."

He left his neighbor and walked into the training ground. "Apollo, Artemis, are you ready for a demonstration for a high-ranking Ministry official?"

For the next hour, Arthur saw a demonstration of physical agility and magical power approaching that of veteran Aurors. Xeno, after just the mention of a demonstration, had returned to Arthur's side and gave a running commentary as Harry and Ginny duelled, and then ran through the obstacle course. Luna watched passively from the center bench, still under the potion's influence.

"You may not have been aware of this, but a part of Harry's debriefing has been redacted by the Department of Mysteries," Xeno said conversationally as they continued to watch the youths go through their daily workout.

"Really?"

"His and Voldemort's killing curses collided with each other with explosive results on two separate occasions."

Arthur stared at the older wizard with a gaping jaw. "That's not possible. Even I know that magic does not work that way."

"Fascinating, isn't it?" Xeno said with an odd touch of passion. "For their magic to interact like that means that each curse was cast at the exact same wavelength, frequency and magical output, which should be theoretically impossible. We've confirmed that he and Voldemort have brother wand cores. And we now have absolute proof that Harry has not just started his magical maturity, but is actually well into it. Our initial projections, based on the starvation and abuse he suffered as a child, put his magical maturity at seventeen. But what we saw in the Pensieve of his memories was truly remarkable."

"And Ginny?"

"She's already well into hers as well, but that's not surprising. Magical maturity accompanies puberty, and girls mature in that regard faster than boys. I would recommend that you ensure that Ginny knows the contraceptive charm."

Arthur turned and stared, horrified. "She is not even fourteen yet!"

Xeno did not even flinch. "We paired them for a reason, Arthur. They will never break up, never date anyone else. They may fight, but it will always be a minor argument. Their very magical cores are helping them get along, and with that meshing will come intense physical desire. And fourteen is not as young as you seem to think, as you of all people should know. If you doubt me, I'm sure your boys will be glad to discuss it with you."

Before he could say more, he saw Harry dive over a shoulder-height wall out in the course, execute a perfect roll, and then emerge with a blasting curse at a nearby boulder. The boulder, easily four tons or more, shattered. More telling was Harry's reaction; he fell back onto his rear and stared in shock. Ginny, who was going to do the same maneuver, instead stopped and walked around the barrier and stared with the same incredulity as Harry. She drifted to his side and reached out absently to take his hand.

Luna, meanwhile, revived enough from her potion to say, "Harry! You broke our course! Now what are we going to shoot at?"

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sp

**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading!


	33. The Lost Children

A/N-Chapter 32 review responses are available in my forums. Some good reviews, and a brief discussion of Brit-Picking versus the inevitability of American authors failing to use British English, and the stupidity of American authors suggesting New Zealand natives would actually want to invade Australia.

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**Chapter Thirty Three: The Lost Children**

That night, during a family Quidditch game with Harry, Ginny, Ron and the twins, Arthur Weasley lied to his wife for the first time ever. Granted, it was a lie by omission, but he still felt bad over it. "Molly, I've decided to let Ginny and Harry spend more time with the Lovegoods."

"Whatever for?" she asked, looking up from her tea in surprise. "It was bad enough Ginny had to stay there last summer when she was sick, Arthur, and despite our better judgment we let her go at Christmas time because of what happened to her at school, but really, after Percy…"

"Xeno approached me about a therapy for Luna they've been working on at school. So far it's worked wonders for her."

"What type of therapy?" Molly asked with her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"They've created social anchors for her—someone to show her how she should act in normal company. Xeno picked out two fellow students with the highest moral character he could find. Evidently young Luna has formed quite the attachment to these kids."

"But what has…oh, Arthur. Not Ginny!"

"Molly, it's Harry and Ginny both, and between then, they can not only keep Luna under control, but actually give her a chance to live an almost normal life. For her mother's sake if not for anyone else's, I don't believe it's too much to ask that we let Ginny and Harry be her guide to life."

It took some more wrangling and quite a few concessions, but when the sun rose the next day, Ginny and Harry were able to walk to the Lovegoods for training with Molly's misguided but honest blessing.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

In early August, two days after Ginny's 14th birthday and a week and a half after Harry's 15th, the two received their first ever summons to the Department of Mysteries as actual agents. They arrived at the Lovegoods before nine to find Luna waiting on the porch with two thick gray cloaks draped over her arm, while wearing a third herself.

"What are those?" Ginny asked.

Luna tossed them the robes. "Your official Unspeakable Cloaks. Father's already at the Ministry—we've been summoned for an assignment."

Harry and Ginny both exchanged a long, excited look before they slipped the robes on. When the robes were donned, both looked nothing like themselves; Luna actually grew a foot in appearance when she pulled forward her cowl. In a muffled, unidentifiable voice, she said, "All cloaked Unspeakables look and sound alike. No one will know it's you. Come on."

They emerged from the Floo into the middle of the Ministry atrium. Somehow, the cloak itself helped to keep Harry from his tell-tale stumble. Harry noted in a detached, nervous way how the Ministry employees made a point of ignoring the three cloaked teenagers, going so far as to turn mid-step to avoid crossing their path.

This was Harry's first trip to the actual Department of Mysteries, and he found the spinning room beyond the main entrance as disorienting as anyone else. However, after the walls stopped spinning, he saw a strange mist before his eyes with glowing letters that labelled each of the doors. One door in particular was surrounded by a green nimbus with lettering that said, "Briefing Rooms".

It was to this door that Luna led them, and beyond it they found a narrow hall lined with other doors that, though they had no outward markings, each had a glowing number as seen through the charmed cowls of their robes. Luna eventually led them into another door with a green aura, and inside they found two other Unspeakables just like them. "Apollo, Artemis, Hera, welcome. Please have a seat."

The message was clear enough—this was an official briefing with code-names only—the very first they'd had. Moments later two people entered; neither in robes. The first was Algie Croaker, dressed in a conservative and surprisingly modern pin-stripe suit with a bowler hat that looked oddly out of place among the charmed robes that covered everyone else.

The second person to enter was wearing the uniform of a commander in the London Metropolitan Police.

"Good morning," Croaker said. "I'm pleased to have joining us Commander Elena Harding of the Specialist Crime Directorate. Commander Harding, aside from being a twenty year veteran officer, is also our official liaison with the Met. She is here today to perform the briefing. Commander?"

"Thank you, Mr. Croaker," Harding said in a brisk, non-nonsense tone. "Can you begin the presentation, please?" she added to the air.

The wall behind her shimmered and was soon replaced by what appeared to be video surveillance in color. "For the past four weeks, we have had a total of twenty children abducted from the greater metropolitan area. The children ranged in ages from ten to sixteen, both sexes but more girls than boys. We began handling this as a normal abduction case until one of our sting operations captured this video."

She then stepped aside to show a pair of children playing together in a park on a sunny day, with their parents sitting on a blanket nearby watching. It looked like a nice, idyllic setting. The children appeared to be twelve to thirteen years old, a boy and a girl, playing football with each other by means of just kicking passes.

Suddenly the girl paused in her step, opened her mouth and said something, but then looked confused. The boy ran toward her before his entire body stiffened like a board. He started to fall forward, only to disappear in mid-air; a second later, the panic-stricken girl disappeared as well.

Croaker stood to face the Unspeakables. "Based on the visual evidence, it appears that the girl was hit with a silencing charm while the boy was hit with a _Petrificus_ hex. Both were then either disillusioned or taken directly through Disapparation or Portkey. Auror teams found traces of magic, but not enough to link to any known wand signatures or location. Commander Harding's request was forwarded to this department."

"We have requested the help of the Department of Mysteries to plan a trap to capture not only those doing the abductions, but to also discover what the purposes is, and if there is any possibility of locating the missing children," Harding said. "None of the parents have received any ransom requests."

"Obviously the best way to do this is to have agents able to impersonate children," Croaker said. "Apollo, Artemis, this is where you come in. You are to impersonate a pair of teens using glamour charms in an attempt to lure the abductors. Passive tracking charms will be used to trace your location until a team can collect you. This is a voluntary mission, however."

"We agree," Harry said without hesitation.

Beside him, he saw the transfigured cowl that was Ginny nod as well.

Harding smiled at them both. "Thank you. This case has been more than just a tragedy; it's been a black-eye on the department. We will be glad to make any resources available to you that you need."

"Thank you, Commander," Croaker said. "We will keep in contact with you regarding the results of our investigation or any coordination required."

The command nodded and stepped through a side-door, where another Unspeakable would presumably escort her out of the Ministry. When she was gone, the lights in the room brightened while across the table one of the other Unspeakables pulled his cowl back to reveal Adonis' face. The other one did the same to show Xeno.

With that as their guide, Harry and Ginny did the same.

"We believe this is not a simple kidnapping so much as a child trafficking ring," Adonis said. "Harding's own people think the same. Our first order of business is to locate the missing children. While it's possible they have already been taken from the country, we believe instead they are being held at a staging area for a single portkey out. All mundane means of smuggling are being closely scrutinized, and there have been no portkeys so far leaving the country."

"For this duration," Xeno said, "Your control will act under the direct supervision of Adonis. Lethal force is only authorized in the event you or the victims face a direct threat of death. Otherwise our goal is to capture and interrogate. Commander Harding will make a pair of officers available to play the part of your parents. Artemis, we will change your hair colour, while Apollo you will use a skin-patch to hide your scar, and tinted contact lenses for your eyes. Do either of you have any questions?"

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Detective Sergeants Harrow Manning and Deidre Smythe looked at Harry and Ginny with worried smiles. "You two look awfully young for this kind of work."

The two police officers were brought in because of their existing knowledge of the magical world. Manning's eldest daughter was a witch who graduated from Hogwarts the year before Harry started, while Deidre's bother was a wizard.

"We're in disguise," Ginny said, fluffing her blonde hair as she did so. Harry tried to hide his smile—since being blond Ginny had made a point of copying the affectations of some of her blonde classmates.

"Well, if it helps us find those kids, I'm all for it," Smythe said. "We'll be stationed at Richmond Park first. We'll come every day for picnics."

"Sounds fun," Ginny said. Oddly enough, despite the seriousness of their mission, it really did sound fun.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

They had no abduction attempts that day. Instead, Harry and Ginny spent the day exploring the massive royal park, often walking hand in hand while listening through the charmed patches near their ear at Luna comments on the people in the park.

"Oh, what an unfortunate child," she said of one particularly broad boy with a face only a mother on drugs could love. "Even the Nargles are scared of him." Or in the case of a large woman on horseback, "I do believe that horse is going to be crippled."

The comments were utterly heartless, and yet spoken with a happy chirp that made the two kids smile while their fake parents looked on. By the second day, they decided to amend their cover so that Ginny was the parent's daughter, while Harry was the boyfriend. Not that it mattered, but it made them feel more in character when they held hands and walked through the park.

On the third day they hired lessons on horseback riding. Ginny proved to be a natural; oddly enough Harry was not. He found himself trying to control the animal rather than trust in its own instincts. "Not unusual for a Quidditch player," was Luna's comment when he was bucked off for the second time in a row. "You are used to completely controlling your broom, but for you to control a horse to that level would require a cruelty you don't possess."

"Let me guess, you can ride," Harry said.

"Yes yes," Luna said without missing a beat. "I control my mounts very well."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

On their fourth day, Harry and Ginny decided not to pretend to be anything other than what they were, and spent the day taking walks or lounging in the greens with Harry's head on Ginny's lap. They didn't really feel the need to talk that much, and after the first few days Luna didn't either. It instead was enough just to be near each other, sharing an occasional kiss or hug.

Nor were they the only couples on the green. Some of the muggle couples were snogging so voraciously it looked almost like cannibalism. Some simply lay next to each other, holding themselves so close together it was almost as if they were trying to make love through their clothes.

Harry found himself watching those couples with a slight red tinge to his cheeks. When he looked away at Ginny, he saw the same touch of color on her face as well. They shared a grin before she leaned down and gently kissed him. "Now that I'm fourteen, are we dating?" she asked.

"Oh yes," Harry breathed, tingling from the kiss.

"Good, because…" Her lips continued moving a moment without sound before her eyes widened. Harry started to sit up too when he felt a petrifying hex hit him. Rather than try to throw the hex off, he gave into it while Ginny's eyes widened further in alarm. A second later they both felt the cooling ripple of disillusionment charms.

"Do you have the girl?" a harsh voice said from the empty air over Harry.

"Yeah. Ready."

And a moment later, Harry and Ginny felt the familiarly sickening tug of a Portkey.

The jarring, twisting ride that followed lasted only a few moments before they found themselves in a painfully bright room with metal girders supporting what looked like a steel roof easily forty feet above them—a warehouse or hangar.

"Not bad, _zese_ new _vons_," a voice said with a thick, Germanic accent.

"They'll fetch some coin," said the same harsh voice that spoke over Harry. "You've got the money, Burkhard?"

"_Ja, ja_, I haff zee money in pounds sterling, as your lord _vished_. Put the new ones with _ze_ others. Those two should make _zee_ quota."

Harry and Ginny never got a clear look at the one called Burkhard before they were levitated across a wide, open expanse of the warehouse occupied by occasional pallets of shipping boxes and in the distance two large cargo containers. It was to the second of these containers the two young magicals were levitated.

The door opened on the nearest one, and the moment it did so they heard the sounds of terrified children screaming. With a flick of the abductor's wands, Harry and Ginny were thrown into the container before it closed again.

In the absolute, sickening blackness, accompanied by the sounds of sobbing children and the even more nauseating smell of human waste, Harry's ear patch said, in a dry voice, "Goodness, Mr. Potter, you certainly left the reservation, didn't you?"

"_Finite_," he heard Ginny whisper, and moments later the binding spell ended.

"Luna, where are we?" Harry said aloud.

"Who're you talking too?" one of the kids said from the darkness. It started a reverberating whisper.

"By quiet!" Ginny hissed. "We're…police officers under cover. Now shut up and do what we tell you, and there's a good chance we'll all get out of this alive."

Harry smiled in the dark. "Luna?"

"Adonis is tracking. It looks like you're in Dover, near the Eastern Docks," she reported. "A quick response team is en route. What is your situation?"

"We've been thrown into a cargo container with what looks like the other abducted children," Harry reported.

"What is their condition?"

Harry reached down and pulled his primary wand from his hidden and charmed leg holster and performed a silent _Lumos_. The nearby children shied away and shielded their eyes from the light. They were filthy and hungry looking, but under the magical light he couldn't see any sign of physical harm. "Children appear to be intact."

"Apollo, Artemis, your orders are to tag the abductors with tracking spells if at all possible, and then to concentrate on the next level of the organization," Control said, obviously channelling Adonis.

"Acknowledged," Harry said. He quickly passed the order on to Ginny, before turning to the kids. "Okay, listen up. You all know about James Bond, right? Well, we have some James Bond type tools that will look a little like magic, but we're going to use them to get everyone home. We just need you to sit tight and keep quiet, okay?"

They received murmured assent before Harry and Ginny nodded and, as quietly as possible, apparated twelve feet above them. They emerged back into the painfully illuminated building two feet above the cargo container. They were ready for that, though, and with a pair of silent cushioning charms they came down without a sound. "They weren't expecting magical children," Ginny whispered. "Or they would have warded the container."

"Thank Merlin for that," Harry said. The possibility had not even occurred to him. They quickly got down on their bellies and moved to the edge of the container to look out across the warehouse.

In the main floor of the warehouse, they saw five figures sitting at a quickly set-up folding table with a brief-case between them. Two of the men wore the black robes of Death Eaters; across from them stood at least one wizard in the orange robes of a _Hexenjäger_. The two men seated across from the Death Eaters wore business suits.

"Control, be advised, at least one _Hexenjäger_is on site," Harry whispered urgently.

"Confirm, Apollo," Control said. "There is a German Auror on site?"

"Confirm. Two Death Eaters, two men in Muggle clothing and at least one German Auror."

A new voice came over the patch into Harry's ear. "All, this is Zeus. Do not engage unless fired upon. Strike team is en route. Remain in position."

Before Harry could respond, the whole container shook violently. The two teens looked up in shock as a huge metal hook descended from a track running the length of the warehouse and latched onto the cargo container. The interior of the container must have been spelled because, even though Harry and Ginny were sure the kids inside were screaming, they heard nothing on the outside.

"Zeus, the cargo container is being moved," Harry reported urgently. "We are on the container."

"Apollo, anti-apparition wards are not in place," Zeus's voice came back. "If you act now, we'll lose them all when they disapparate."

Harry thought furiously before he made a snap decision. He reached into his pocket and removed his shrunken broom. Ginny followed his movements before doing the same with hers. He quietly disillusioned her, while she did the same for him, and both did the same for their brooms before they very quickly drifted off the top of the container. As they did so, they got a better view and saw that the container was being carried to a waiting lorry. The door of the warehouse was open, and beyond it they could see the cargo wharves of the Eastern Docks.

Still casting wordlessly, Harry tossed a pair of tracking charms onto the cargo container before they settled in and watched the transaction below. They drifted close enough to catch the conversation.

The men appeared to be German Muggles and smugglers who knew of the magical world. The German Auror was evidently their guard against betrayal from the two Death Eaters, and the twenty-two children were being sold for two hundred thousand pounds sterling. They heard that the children were to be shipped in a container with Muggle-repelling charms onto the continent, and then into Asia and the Middle East where Anglo children would fetch the highest prices. The men talked about their potential buyer's brutality with a wanton and terrible casualness.

Harry felt the powerful anti-apparition wards go up a second before the German Auror. "_Scheibe!_ _Eine falle__!"_

"_Vat_ is this, you try to trick us?" the German Muggle demanded as he reached into his coat pocket for a very large, Israeli-made pistol.

"Watch'oo talkin' bout?" the skinnier of the Death Eaters said.

The thick-set one with the harsh voice, though, also understood. "Wards! We've been traced."

The Auror shouted, "_Raus hier, wir werden angegriffen__!_"

Harry and Ginny felt their stomachs drop when, from behind several pallets of cargo at the end of the warehouse ran thirty men, some in German Auror robes, others in plain wizarding wear. They quickly took positions around the warehouse to watch every entrance.

"Control, tactical situation has changed," Ginny hissed. "Counting thirty wizards; German Aurors and plainclothesmen forming defences."

They both heard Zeus cursing, though he quickly regained control of himself. "What is your situation?" he demanded.

Still whispering, Harry said, "Disillusioned on brooms overhead."

"The attack is going to proceed," Zeus decided. "When the first spells are launched, you are both authorized to engage. Stun when you can, kill otherwise."

"We'll stun the leadership first if we can," Harry whispered.

At that moment, the side door of the warehouse and four other spots around the walls themselves exploded before powerful blasting curses as the quick strike team attacked. In the momentary chaos of the attack, Harry and Ginny swooped down on their brooms and started firing silent stunners into the core party. They hit the muggles and Death Eaters without any problems, but the German Auror responded to the sight of his fellows falling by conjuring a rain of black paint and firing it up and out over the floor.

Harry and Ginny each felt the paint splash against their clothes and knew the disillusionment charm was useless.

"_Über uns! Legt sie um,_" the Auror yelled. Half the wizards looked up and started firing powerful curses. Harry surged his broom under Ginny and conjured his strongest shield, while from above Ginny started throwing back her own hexes. It was the opening Adonis needed as he led his team of twenty into the warehouse in squads of four. They fired killing and disabling curses without hesitation and between the distraction from above and the full assault from the front, the more numerous smuggler defense began to crack.

The most intense fight was Adonis and the first German Auror himself. The man proved to be powerful, fast and frighteningly accurate. Adonis danced around killing curses and bone-shattering curses, blocking when he couldn't avoid. Twice, other agents, who had finished with the lesser smugglers, had tried to intercede only to be quickly put down—one with a killing curse and one with eviscerating curse.

Harry and Ginny, now no longer under fire, drifted apart and began launching their own curses at the German, until through sheer numbers they forced him to divert his shield to stop a curse from Harry and leave himself open to a powerful stunner from Adonis. The man staggered back, but amazingly did not fall at first. Ginny's _Expelliarmus_ ripped his wand from his hand and Harry's most powerful stunner sent the man somersaulting through the air before he collapsed.

And like that, over the course of only two minutes, the fight was over. The lorry that held the container full of children idled loudly in the silence of the warehouse, but otherwise no one moved. Ginny and Harry both floated down to the floor to join Adonis as he surveyed the fallen. His team had lost four people—two to serious injury and two to death, both at the hands of the German Auror.

"Well, this was a bit of a mess, wasn't it?" came Luna's voice over their ear patches.

* * *

sp

**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading! Also special thanks to Nothorse_at_y for the German. The term for the German Auror is all him. Thanks!


	34. Fortress

A/N-Chapter 33 review responses are in my forum. The forum has been renamed as well. Thank you.

* * *

**Chapter Thirty-Four: Fortress**

On the day before school was to begin, two things of note occurred.

The first occurred that morning, when a ragged man in black robes appeared with a pop on the edge of a hidden estate. To the uninitiated, the estate was nothing more than an unattractive bog, but to those marked and initiated, the bog transformed to a Jacobean manor house and an exquisitely tended garden teaming with peacocks and other decorative fowl.

Standing just within the ornate, gold-plated gates that marked the boundary of the property stood two figures in black robes wearing silver masks. Both figures carried their wands in gloved hands which were pointed at the new arrival.

"Snape," one intoned. "You have not been summoned. Why are you here?"

"Rowle," Snape gasped, recognizing the voice, "I must see the Master. Beg him if you must—_I'll_ beg if I must. But I must see him."

"Come, then," Rowle said. Snape was not considered part of the Inner Circle because of his proximity to Dumbledore, but he was also one of the Master's most important spies. To Rowle's practiced eyes, the Potions Professor appeared to have undergone hours of torture. He was more pale than normal; his hair was knotted with lack of care; and the man reeked of sweat. However, there was also a gleam in his eye that reminded Rowle a little too much of Bellatrix.

As it happened, Voldemort lounged in the back rose garden of the manor. It would have shocked many to see the Dark Lord at ease, but when not planning Voldemort took most of his time in the back garden, drinking strange potions Snape himself brewed while reading obscure works that his agents scoured the globe for. In fact, his first efforts after his rebirth were to restore his old book collecting network.

He was speaking at that moment with Narcissa Malfoy, who wore a light summer dress and a broad white hat while sipping her morning tea. The two were calmly discussing their overseas recruitment efforts when Rowle led Snape to them. "My Lord," Rowle said with a bow from the waist, "Snape begs permission to see you."

Reptilian red eyes regarding Snape frankly. "You don't look well, Severus."

"I am not well, Master."

"Very well, I will see him, Thorfin."

"Yes, My Lord." Rowle left, thankful to avoid punishment for interrupting his morning. Snape meanwhile remained where he stood, hunched and spread-legged, breathing in angry, short gasps.

"Tell me, Severus, what has happened that made you come here so quickly?"

With obvious effort, Snape said, "I have come to confess my sins, My Lord. I have betrayed you. I have been betraying you since I learned the prophecy would mean Lily's death. I turned spy for Dumbledore, and I served as his man."

Narcissa sat up, her voice caught in a soundless "O" of surprise.

Voldemort deliberately reached across his table, took his glass of pitch-black potion, and sipped it while regarding Snape. "And you have come expecting what, Severus?" he said after he swallowed. "My gratitude for the confession, and a hug perhaps?"

Snape shook his head violently. "If you were to kill me, I would understand," he said. "I came to you because…because I know what _he_ did. What they did. I've recovered my memories, and I want them dead."

This elicited a response from the Dark Lord at last. He stood up from his lounger, straightening his black robes as he did so. "What memories, Severus?"

"Before you were reborn," Snape gasps. "The year Black escaped. I was attacked in the castle. My ear was severed, as were my fingers. It was someone Polyjuiced as Potter, but Potter managed to have a perfect alibi. Pomfrey fixed me well enough, and Dumbledore believed it was Black. But later…I caught them, my lord! I caught Black, Lupin, Potter and his two whores in the shrieking shack. I caught them conspiring, and we fought. And the girl—Lovegood—she threw knives at me. The same knives used to cut my ear and fingers earlier that year. It was Lovegood who attacked me! And she, Potter and Weasley all fought me in the shack. They fought too well for one third year and a pair of second years. They'd had training, my lord. Training easily as good as anything I gave to Draco. I beat them still, but with Lupin and Black helping them, I was overcome. But I was avenged—the Dementors came. Somehow, they were driven off, but not before they were all taken into custody."

Voldemort stood frozen like a statute, his red eyes peering intently at the gasping, upset Snape. "Then what happened, my friend?"

"Lockhart!" Snape gasped. "He was the one training them. He obliviated me! When I woke up, Black had somehow escaped and everyone who should have been interrogated had been obliviated. Lockhart! I thought the man was just a fool, but he had Potter and Weasley in detention all year long. He was training them!"

Dark eyes finally rose to meet red ones. "I have betrayed you, My Lord, only to be betrayed. Potter and his whores attacked me—the life debt I owed to his father is gone. I will not protect him any more—I want the little bastard and his whores dead! I confess this so that you know I serve only you now. My shields are down, take the truth from me!"

Voldemort did not hesitate, and Snape's screams of agony were due payment of his crimes. When at last the Dark Lord had what he wanted, Snape fell to his knees gasping for breath while clutching his head.

"_If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge_?" Voldemort said with a strangely satisfied smile.

Coughing and gasping, Snape looked up at his master. "I will better the instruction, Lord. I swear to you."

"Yes, you will," Voldemort said. "I forgive your betrayal, Severus. Let it not be said that Voldemort is without mercy, for you have been wronged heinously. You shall have your revenge, but you must not underestimate the boy. I did so, and look what happened. Potter is growing more powerful with each day of his life, and is obviously being trained by elements of the Ministry. Do you not remember, at the end, how many times his parents vexed me?"

"They fought better than any other Aurors you faced," Narcissa said, since he spoke the last to her.

"Yes. There were a few paired fighters that truly caused us heartache. The Unspeakables whose names were never learned, though I suspected Dorcas Meadows was one of them, the Longbottoms, the Prewitt twins, and the Potters. I wonder…" Voldemort fell silent; while Snape remained at the dark wizard's feet, clutching his head from the vicious mental rape he just suffered.

"Severus, you shall test Potter. I want to know just how powerful he is. I shall devise my own tests as well, but you are in a position to test him sooner. Recruit your house to assist you. Do this for me and you will find a favoured place within my Inner Circle."

"I will do it, Master," Snape said without hesitation. "Thank you!"

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The second thing of note that occurred the day before school started took place an hour before midnight, when Hit Wizards received an alert from the Ministry about offensive magic being used between the Channel towns of Folkestone and Saltwood.

The Hit Wizards apparated to what appeared to be a golf course where they immediately came under spellfire. The squad of three men ducked for cover and raised their shields, and only then did they try to see what was happening.

What they saw was a startlingly beautiful woman with silver-blonde hair, bleeding from multiple curses, fighting alone against a group of four wizards in Muggle clothing. The fact she appeared to be winning just added to her beauty, as far as the Aurors were concerned.

Being men, the Hit Wizards acted with predictable results and immediately started casting into the muggle-dressed attackers. The attackers seemed to realize quickly that the odds were no longer on their side, and quickly disappeared with loud apparation _cracks_.

The witch spun around until her wand was trained on the newcomers. "_Qui etes-vous_?"

It just happened that George Harringford spoke a spattering of French. "_Nous sommes de la police magique._"

"Your French is _terrible_," the girl said in perfect, unaccented English. "My name is Fleur Delacour. I am requesting asylum."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

In an unusual turn of events, Hermione was the last person to join the group on the train. Ron, who spent the few minutes they had in the cabin nervously twirling his thumbs, was first to jump to his feet, leaving Hermione little choice but to greet him first. She did so with a genuine smile; Harry noticed their hug lasted a second or so longer than normal, but said nothing as he too stood to accept a hug, followed by Ginny.

Luna did not look up from her copy of the Quibbler and Hermione seemed content with that as she sat down next to Ron, opposite her other friends.

"Well, how was Spain?" Ginny said.

"Amazing!" Hermione said. "The beaches were just fabulous!"

Ron stammered a little before he said, "You look good."

"Thank you, Ron," Hermione said with a bright smile. The smile faded a little though as she looked back at Harry. "How about you? Your letters didn't say much of anything but…"

"We're doing okay," Ginny said. Hermione's eyes flickered to where Ginny rested a hand on Harry's knee, and as she did so she noticed how Harry accepted the contact without any reaction. "It was hard at first, but Harry's always been a part of the family, so in a way this was like him coming home."

Harry for his part nodded, but didn't seem to have any desire to talk about it.

"So, I'm dying to know who the other fifth year prefect is!" Hermione announced, changing course abruptly. "Is it you, Harry?"

Harry snorted, while Ron flushed and looked down at his twiddling thumbs. "Er, no, it's me, Hermione."

"Oh." Hermione blinked in surprise, and then tried to recover herself. "Well, that's wonderful news, Ron! I hope you set a good example for the first years. The prefect's meeting is going to start in about an hour. I…I supposed I was just expecting…"

Ron shrugged. "Yeah, me too."

Hermione felt a grin spreading across her face. "So, Ginny, you're fourteen now."

Ginny stared at her for a moment before her own grin appeared. "Yes, I am."

"Anything I should know about?"

"Yes, Harry's dating Luna."

Ron choked on spit while Hermione stared. She then started laughing hard, thinking Ginny was pulling her leg, and continued laughing right up to the point that Luna stood, leaned over, and gave Harry the most sensuous, passionate kiss Hermione had ever seen in real life. Not even her parents kissed like that.

Harry and Ginny scooted over and Luna sat on his other side before she casually resumed reading the Quibbler. The entire time, Ginny kept her hand on Harry's knee. Hermione felt her cheeks blooming. "That's, uh, nice."

"Harry," Ginny said in a conspiratorial whisper, "I think we broke Ron."

Hermione turned and indeed noticed Ron staring slack-jawed. A moment later, he blushed so hard he turned puce, got up and left the cabin. Hermione snickered. "That was mean, Harry."

Ginny laughed. "And Ron should have known better. Yes, we're officially a couple."

"And you let Luna kiss him like that?"

Luna looked up at last from her paper and fixed Hermione with a steady stare. "Are you upset because you wish to kiss him too?"

"What?" Hermione's cheeks blossomed a bright red. "No, for goodness sake!"

"Too bad," Luna murmured. "Then Harry could say he got a good snog from three girls all in the same cabin."

"I'll have you know that I have no desire to kiss Harry Potter," Hermione declared.

"That's good, because I don't intend to share," Ginny declared as she took Harry's hand.

Hermione could not help but notice a brief tightening around Luna's mouth. "What about Luna's kiss?"

Ginny gave the blonde Ravenclaw a long look. "Hermione, you know Luna. Can you imagine what she'd do to me if I didn't let her snog him once in a while? We're a team, all three of us."

The crease around Luna's lips seemed to relax. "Does that mean sharing Harry?" Hermione asked, sensing there was more going on between the three of them than they wanted to admit.

"Within reason," Ginny said after a long, thoughtful pause.

"Well, it's not up to me to tell you how to live. Just, please don't break Ron any more. It's hard enough with him as is."

Ginny smiled brilliantly. "You admit you like him, then?"

"Well…he is quite handsome, really. And he has such a lovely smile."

"Rather like a besotted, ginger puppy," Luna noted.

"Not at all!" Hermione said quickly. Luna simply stared back until the older girl finally shrugged. "Well, okay, maybe so. But he's such a cute besotted puppy! And a little ginger can make life spicy."

Even Harry had to groan at that one.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Harry noticed that throughout the opening feast, Snape was staring at him with a hungry smile, as if he knew some secret that would delight him and torture Harry. Beside him, Hermione said, "Who's the new DADA professor?"

"I have no idea," Harry admitted.

"That's a first," Ron muttered. "Not one of ours, then?"

"He seems a little old and…soft," Harry said, looking at the elderly gentleman sitting to Dumbledore's left.

"Harry," Hermione said softly, "don't you think it's odd that we don't know who he is?"

Harry nodded, understanding exactly what she meant by that. "Dumbledore controls the Board now."

Finally the first years were sorted and Dumbledore stood to make the opening remarks. "Now that we have all been watered and fed, let me welcome all to yet another year at Hogwarts. I know that many of you have heard the news of what happened last summer and are worried. I do not wish to lie to you—as the Minister for Magic has confirmed, Voldemort has returned. Accordingly, new security measures have been taken. First and foremost, many of you may be aware of secret passages around the castle, some even leading out of the castle. These passages have been sealed. No one can enter of leave the castle without my permission—as you can imagine this is a great boost in security."

Harry felt Ginny's hands gripping his knee hard and he returned the grip—within the next day or so they were going to have to test the passage from the Whomping Willow to the Shrieking Shack.

"Additionally, the number of Hogsmeade weekends has been greatly reduced."

This produced groans and mutters, to which Dumbledore raised both hands. "This is for your own protection, and something both the Governors and even your own parents agree with. Those Hogsmeade weekends we do have will be very closely supervised not just by castle staff, but also by Ministry Hit Wizards to ensure everyone's protection.

"And finally, as many of you have noticed, we have a new staff member. You are all too young to remember Horace Slughorn, but Professor Slughorn was once upon a time the head of Slytherin House and a Potions Master of some renown. I am most especially pleased that Professor Slughorn was willing to come out of retirement to resume teaching potions this year. Professor Snape, if you are wondering, will be assuming the Defence Against the Dark Arts post. Professor Snape holds a Masters in Defence Against the Dark Arts as well as in Potions and has in the past shown himself most capable in the subject. I'm sure you will all welcome Professor Slughorn and congratulate Professor Snape in his new role."

Harry understood the smile then. He looked across the room as every Slytherin, including even the first years, stood to applaud Professor Snape. The rest of the students muttered in dismay.

"What does this mean?" Ron asked.

"It means," Ginny said bitterly, "they know that all Harry has to do is pass his OWLs and turn 16, and he can seek emancipation."

"And so," Hermione concluded, "they're going to make it as hard for him to do that as humanly possible."

Fifth year was already shaping up to be the worst year yet.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

They confirmed every passage out of the castle was sealed their first night, including the passage from the Whomping Willow to the Shrieking Shack. Harry sighed in frustration as he and Ginny barely beat curfew back into the common room. They stayed under his invisibility cloak while testing the passages, but once that was done they hid his father's cloak in his school robe and walked hand-in-hand back to the Common Room.

He found holding her hand helped him control his temper. They were still holding hands when they walked into the Gryffindor common room, but did not realize anything was amiss until they became aware of the sudden silence that filled the room.

Startled out of their thoughts, Harry and Ginny realized everyone in the Common Room, from First Years to Seventh, was staring at them—more importantly, at their joined hands.

Finally, Ginny said, "Oh come on, does this really surprise any of you?"

That elicited a few chuckles from the upper years and broke the unspoken tension in the room. Almost immediately a pack of giggling girls descended on Ginny—her Fourth Year roommates all but swept her away from Harry. Grinning despite the frustrations of the day, she managed to wave briefly at Harry before disappearing.

Harry found a similar group in his dorm room when he walked in. Dean and Seamus were both playing exploding snap while Neville simply stared at him. It struck Harry then how very little time he spent being a friend to his roommates. Other than passing them at night and in the mornings, he rarely spent any time with them at all, and they deserved better.

"Hey, guys," he said with a nod. "Have room for a third?"

"Sure you want to, 'Arry?" Seamus said. "Not a tit 'tween us."

"Merlin, I hope not," Harry said fervently, which caused some laughter. The boys moved and Harry sat in the middle of the floor with them.

"So, Ginny, huh?" Dean asked carefully.

"Yeah," Harry said.

Dean nodded. "You living with her?"

Ron snorted as he plopped down, forcing his way into the game. "You have no idea. Dad warded all our rooms so we can't have girls in them with the door closed."

Dean shook his head, but Seamus laughed. "Least he told you. Me mum didn't tell me and my girlfriend this summer broke up with me cause o' the spots she got from the ward."

He was obviously already over it, and the story evoked the laughter he was looking for. Finally, Harry looked up at their lone friend and said, "Come on, Neville. When's the last time we all played?"

"You'd know," Neville said, not unkindly.

That quieted the other boys down a little as they stared between the two. Harry, in a melancholy mood, merely nodded. "I know. Got caught up in Boy-Who-Lived crap and forgot what's important. Come play a hand or two?"

Finally Neville nodded and sat between Harry and Dean while Seamus dealt the hand. For the rest of the night, Harry was able to forget the plots and mysteries of his world and just act like a fifteen-year-old boy hanging out with his friends. No one mentioned Cedric or Krum, or the Tri-Wizard Tournament at all, and for that he was more grateful than any of his dorm mates would ever know.

He had Potions early the next morning and discovered that Professor Horace Slughorn was a thousand times nicer than Snape ever was. The old man was also patently creepy. He seemed to gravitate toward Harry like a hippogriff to a ferret, eying the Fifth Year with a hungry gleam in his beady old eyes that made Harry profoundly uncomfortable. On several occasions he wished that Luna were there to protect him, since he couldn't think of anyone else who would be better equipped to handle creepy.

"Mr. Potter, stay a moment, if you please," the old man said at the end of class.

As she was leaving, Hermione said, "Good luck, Harry."

Ron added, "If he touches your bum, scream like a girl and run away."

Hermione responded to that by flicking Ron's forehead right between the eyes. "Prat," she announced before taking his arm and leading him out of the room. In the following silence, Slughorn motioned Harry to walk forward until the young teen stood at the Potion Master's desk.

"Yes," he finally said, "I see why Albus is so conflicted about you, my boy."

Harry blinked in confusion. "Sir?"

Slughorn pushed himself to his feet. "I'm a very old man, Harry my boy. Albus has a few years on me it's true, but not many. I've seen many, many students through these halls. I've made a hobby of getting to know them and following their careers. I'm on a first-name basis with many important people not just here in the UK, but across the world. And in all those many years, my boy, I've only met two others like you. Albus, and of course, You-Know-Who."

Harry tried to still his beating heart—did Slughorn somehow know that Harry was a…

"Yes, I know you're a Sport, Harry," Slughorn said with a chuckle. "Dumbledore confessed why he thought he was the only one who could fight You-Know-Who during the first war. You might have been able to hide it before, but no longer. You've begun your magical maturity, and any wizard or witch with any sensitivity to magic will be able to feel you the moment you walk into a room. Albus has that same effect. Oh, he's tried to pretend over the years that it's just his presence and leadership, but between us that's codswallop. It's his bloody magical aura. Damned thing can be quite distracting—just like yours was today. Come, my boy. Let's get out of this draughty classroom."

Against Harry's better judgment, he found himself led into Slughorn's personal quarters just off the Dungeons. He was surprised at how spacious and well-appointed they were. The old professor walked toward a well-stocked liquor cabinet and poured himself a glass of brandy. "Anything for you, Harry? A little young for a real drink, but I'm sure I have some butterbeer around here somewhere."

"No, thank you, Professor," Harry said. "Sir, could I ask why I'm here?"

"You can always ask, Harry. Have a seat by the fire, if you will." Slughorn settled himself into an oversized plush chair and leaned back. "I didn't want to come back to work, you see. I knew eventually You-Know-Who would come after me. I was his professor too, you see. But Albus is a manipulative old bastard, whatever else can be said. He waved the ultimate enticement to me."

Harry knew he shouldn't, but still he said, "And what was that, sir?"

"Why, you of course. I was going through your class record—rather ordinary your first two years, really. But something happened your second year. Your grades steadily improved until you actually surpassed your friend Ms. Granger in class standing, before they dropped back down to fifth standing. And you have maintained that standing, without an ounce of variation, throughout the following two years year despite that dreadful tournament. You know what that tells me?"

"What's that, sir?"

"That you're much, much better than anyone realizes, and that is exactly how you wish it to be." Slughorn sipped his brandy. "I was quite close to your parents, you know. Well, I take that back. I was quite close to your mother. She was one of the two most promising pupils I ever taught. When she died…well, I can tell you I've lost many pupils over the years, my boy. But there was only one loss that made me weep."

Harry sat very, very still, unsure how to process this information. So, he chose silence. Slughorn for his part simply stared into his brandy, as if lost. "Albus is going to come after you this year, Harry," the old man said finally. "He is not an evil man, I hope you understand that. He is not dark. But he is stubborn, terribly so, and determined to have his own way. And because he is unwilling to do evil things, he makes sure he has a tool on hand that will."

"Snape."

"Snape," Slughorn agreed. "It will be a difficult year for you, my boy. Watch yourself. And know that you're not as cut off as you think."

"Thank you, sir."

"Well, enough for the ramblings of an old man. I'm sure you have another class to get to. For that matter, I suppose I do too. Needless to say, I expect your grade in Potion will improve to fifth standing as well, if for no other reason than to offset the hit your DADA grade will most certainly take."

"Yes, sir, I expect it will too. Thank you."

That night, with his bed curtains closed and charmed to silence the conversation, Harry had a four-way conversation with Adonis, Ginny in her dorm, and Luna on magical mirrors. Adonis was surprised by the new staffing, but also grudgingly impressed. "He just cut Amelia's legs out from under her," Adonis said. "Damn. The poor potions grades were what she was going to use to exert more control over the Board of Governors, but whatever else can be said about the man, Slughorn is a very good teacher. And Snape at last gets the DADA position he has been craving for years."

"Do you think Slughorn is trustworthy?" Harry asked.

In the mirror, Adonis pursed his lips in thought. "Your mother adored him, but I can't say how much she actually trusted him. Slughorn is an influence peddler—he collects people like trophies and treats them in much the same way. He has never shown much interest in overly abusing his contacts, but rather maintains his network for the sheer joy it brings him in having a network in the first place. Still, his warning was well-worded. Keep your head down and your temper under control, Apollo. This may be the greatest test you face—a quick fight is easy to get through. You win or lose. But this year will be a test of endurance, and I think you'll find that much more difficult for your temperament."

"We could always just kill Snape," Luna noted.

"Yes, we could, but Zeus and I believe that would be a grave mistake. Right now, however slight it is, there is still the hope that we might be able to work with Albus in at least a semblance of cooperation. If we kill his attack dog, though, we will have made an enemy of him. And right now Albus is in a much better position to do you harm than Voldemort. Now, have you given thought to your training requirements?"

"I inquired of the elves in the kitchens," Luna said. "I believe we may have a satisfactory location to continue our training. However, I would appreciate it if you could smuggle a second invisibility cloak to me to aid in after-hours access."

"Consider it done," Adonis said. "Have any of you had DADA yet?"

"I had it," Ginny said with a shudder. "He must know Harry and I are dating. I lost twenty points because I didn't answer all his questions fast enough."

"Just keep your heads down," Adonis warned. "If it becomes dangerous, then one of you should contact us as soon as possible and we will share our concerns with the Ministry."

"We will," Harry promised.

* * *

sp

**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading! They kept me from making the dreaded they're/their mistake, thank goodness!


	35. Violence Inherent In the System

A/N: Chapter 34 Review Responses are available in my forums. Thank you for reading!

* * *

**Chapter Thirty-Five: Violence Inherent in the System**

Harry had Defense Against the Dark Arts the day after the late night mirror conference, and shuffled in with the rest of the Fifth Year Gryffindors. As always seemed to be the case, they were paired with Slytherin. Harry looked at the Snakes, unconsciously searching for Malfoy. It seemed strange he hadn't seen the boy on the train, since the annual taunts were something of a tradition.

When he saw him, he felt a tinge of…well, not intimidation, but certainly surprise. Malfoy had grown taller than Harry, and though he was thin he had obviously entered his magical maturity as well as puberty. He sat in front of his two thugs, but behind Daphne Greengrass, who was speaking to him in a low, urgent voice. Both of them happened to look across the room at Harry as if speaking of him. Daphne frowned, but Malfoy looked away with a casual air that made Harry angry. Which, he realized a moment later, was the point.

Snape blew into the room like a vortex, the door slamming shut behind him, until he stepped behind the podium. His eyes immediately latched onto Harry's, and just as quickly Harry felt a probe against his much-strengthened Occlumency shields.

"You know who I am," he said. "This is Fifth Year Defence Against the Dark Arts. This is your O.W.L. year, and so we will be working especially hard to make up for the past four years of incompetence. Potter!"

Harry was proud of the fact he did not jump. "Yes, Professor?"

"What is the name of the kinetic/magical shield?"

Harry's mind accelerated as he considered the hatred behind the question. He knew the answer, but only because he'd read Auror-level books. There was no way a student could have known the answer to that unless they had extra-curricular training. It was just like his very first day of potions as a First Year.

Harry could do it again, even if he hated it. "I don't know, Professor. Where in the book would that be?"

"Book?" Snape asked with delight. "Why would you need a book, Potter? Aren't you the prodigy of DADA? Wasn't it you who helped defeat servants of the Dark Lord after the Quidditch Championship summer before last? Wasn't it you who supposed faced the Dark Lord and somehow lived after the tournament?"

The rest of the class stared in shock at the malice with which Snape asked impossible questions. Harry refused to look away from the Professor. "Yes, it was."

"Then answer the question!"

"I do not know, Professor."

"Pathetic," Snape snarled. "Either you are lying, or grossly ignorant. Either way, twenty points from Gryffindor for your abysmal behavior. Now, everyone open your books to chapter one. We will begin with basic protective spells and charms."

Harry ground his teeth and hunkered down to his book, while behind him he heard Hermione muttering in outrage. Ron looked sad and just shrugged as if to say, _What can you do?_

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Harry, Ginny and Luna waited one long, horrid week before they resolved their training space problem. Or rather, Luna resolved it. Her father smuggled her an invisibility cloak in the lining of a box of old Quibbler issues that was not quite as good or large as Harry's, but which gave her added security when slipping out of the Ravenclaw tower after curfew.

Armed with the Marauder's Map and his own cloak, Harry and Ginny clung together as they made their own way to the seventh floor where Luna's brief note told them to meet. The map told him that Luna was there when they arrived, even if he could not see her. Although it was a Saturday, the curfew remained, so the halls were otherwise empty.

"What's on the ceiling of your bedroom?" Harry whispered into the air.

"What I wish more than anything," came the reply whispered reply. They felt her brush against them. "The portraits report everything to Dumbledore, but they cannot actually see the entrance. So as long as we stay hidden and quiet, we should be safe."

"What entrance?" Harry asked.

"You walk in front of the tapestry of Barnabas and his trolls three times and think about what you need," she said. They heard the scuff of her shoes as she paced before the tapestry, and a moment later a door formed right out of the wall beside the tapestry.

They went inside to find a near replica of the training course at the Rookery, although the corner with the large daybed was a new addition. Once inside, Luna pulled off her cloak, and Harry did the same. Both stared at their blonde friend in surprise, and then Ginny snickered.

Luna was dressed in white cotton pajamas decorated with Winnie the Poo characters. "Is something wrong?" she asked, with a tilted head.

"Your jammies are so cute!" Ginny gushed.

"Why, thank you." Luna's cheeks flushed brightly as she walked over and collapsed on the daybed. "I slept half the day with a new potion," the blonde said. "My roommates tried to prank me because of sleeping most of the day, but they didn't realize I'd warded my bed. They know I'm on a potion, though. Professor Flitwick has asked me to meet with him tomorrow to discuss my 'behavior issues.'"

"What happened?" Harry asked.

Luna looked up with a mild frown that on her might have been sobbing despair. "This summer father walked in on me while masturbating, and seemed upset for some reason. So now my mind healer has placed me on a new potion to lower my libido."

By this point in their relationship, Ginny didn't even blush. Instead, she asked, "Who would want to make a potion to lower a woman's libido?"

"No one. Evidently the elderly potions master was trying to make a potion to increase his wife's sex drive. It did not work as he wanted." She sighed tragically. "The last potion dose started to wear off yesterday, and last night I was reading when I started to think about you two. It was such a wonderful daydream. Cho caught me and reported me to Flitwick for lewd behavior. I will have a detention, I'm sure, and that will interfere with our training."

They finally got to why she was upset—not that Cho Chang caught Luna openly masturbating in the Ravenclaw common room—but that the consequence could interfere with training.

It took ten minutes to calm Luna down, but once they accomplished that they were able to go through the training maintenance regimen Adonis had developed for them when they could not do any new training. It was two solid hours of work and left all three of them, since Luna went through as much as her power allowed, sweaty and tired.

After they finished the last of their program, Harry grew nervous when the far corner of the spacious room slowly morphed into a broad, open shower. "You're joking," he muttered.

"Why?" Luna asked as she started to undo her pajamas.

Harry stopped her gently. "Luna, we're not ready for that. We…you're a part of what we have, yes. But that also means you have to wait too."

"Oh poo," the thin blonde muttered. "So, no showering together?"

"Not for a long time," Ginny said, though there was a strange gleam in her eyes, as if she were envisioning it.

Harry certainly was.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

School buckled down to an unusually somber routine. Though Harry could not put his finger on it precisely, things felt strange. For one thing, the Slytherins walked around the halls of the castle speaking loudly, with a confidence that Harry at first attributed to the change in Professor Snape's position. However, they made a point of staring at him whenever he walked by that made his skin crawl.

Perhaps because of the Slytherin's confidence, the rest of the school seemed more jittery than normal. Harry and Ginny were pleased that Susan Bones' classmates seemed a little more accepting around her this year, but she still joined them during breakfast or lunch and looked nervous.

"The whole place feels like it's about to explode," she complained during the second week of classes.

And that was just it—the whole castle felt like a tinder box about to ignite. Harry just hoped it was not he or Ginny who provided the spark.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

"Potter!" an unfamiliar voice hissed at Harry as he tumbled out of the Gryffindor common room a week after Hermione's birthday party. Ginny had already left for her morning class, while Harry was just rushing out to get breakfast.

He spun until he found the voice. He saw a student in Slytherin robes standing slightly behind a statue of Edelbert the Erudite who once put down a goblin invasion with the inspirational speech he gave to his own men. The speech was so long and boring the Goblins simply left the field of battle while his own men fell asleep.

With a flick of his wand Harry cast a detection spell, but did not find anyone else there. "Who're…Greengrass?"

He had never spoken to Daphne Greengrass in his life—in fact to his knowledge no Gryffindor had ever exchanged words with the Slytherin beauty. But there she was, motioning for him to hush. "Don't go to DADA today," she said quickly.

"Why not?"

"Just…don't," she said.

"Not good enough," Harry said firmly. "What's going on?"

"Professor Snape had everyone in Fifth Year practicing curses last night. He said they're going to be for you. He taught some really dark stuff, Potter. If you know what's good for you, you'll miss class today. Something's changed. Snape said you're fair game."

"Why are you telling me?"

"So I won't have to get sent to Azkaban for using a dark curse without also making a target of myself in my house, why do you think?" She said the last as if it was the most obvious statement in the world, and that Harry was a complete idiot for not thinking of it himself.

Harry, though, shook his head. "If he's got it in for me, skipping one class will just delay the inevitable. But don't worry; if I survive I'll be sure to tell the Aurors you tried to cover all your bases."

He left the fuming Slytherin by the statue and walked to class, taking deep breaths to calm himself. He beat Daphne into the room by a few moments only—he noticed she sat by Malfoy and Parkinson with a cold expression. Snape came in a split second later and slammed the door behind him. Harry could not miss the hungry gleam in the man's eyes.

"Potter," Snape called as soon as he reached the head of the room. "Stand there, against the wall."

Harry ignored the snickering from the Slytherins and did as he was told. Snape strolled to the center of the room. "Since Mr. Potter is so very accomplished in Defence, he will demonstrate the _Protego_ shield for the class. Everyone form a line, single-file."

Because of their position to Snape, the first ones in line were the Slytherins. "You are to cast a jinx at Potter," Snape said, drawling. "Potter, if you move I shall take 100 points from Gryffindor. You are to shield only. Begin."

Daphne Greengrass was first. She glared at him but dared not make any sign of their previous conversation. Without hesitation, and to the gasping horror of the other Gryffindors, she cast not a jinx, but a full-on blasting curse that only a seventh year should have known. Harry's brows furrowed angrily as he quietly pronounced the shield charm and blocked the curse cold. The blonde Slytherin stared at Harry in surprise, having expected her curse to break his shield.

"Next," Snape said, completely disregarding the blatant violation of his orders and the sheer danger of the curse his student cast.

Some of the Slytherins cast minor hexes—such as the Hair Loss Hex. Others cast curses designed to cause pain, such as the Conjunctivitis Curse or the Gouging Spell, which when used against another was classified as a curse as well.

Harry stood perfectly still, his face set like granite, and blocked each and every one. Nearby, Snape stood with an intent stillness, his face as expressionless as Harry's, while those who sat down after casting grew steadily more nervous as it became apparent that Snape intended every student in Slytherin to curse Harry.

The last Slytherin stood before Harry with an angry smirk—it was Malfoy, of course. He slowly pointed his wand at Harry and shouted, "_Aesuomk'ak Aep T'akh._"

Harry should not have known what the pronunciation for the entrails-expelling curse was as a fifth year, but because of his training he did. He knew it was a usually a lethal curse, and he knew for a fact that the standard _Protego_ charm could not stop it. Moreover, Draco aimed the curse perfectly, so it would be impossible for Harry to avoid it without moving.

"_Aegis_," Harry called. The silver, mirror-like shield snapped into place before him and reflected the deadly spell not back at Malfoy, but because of its intentional angling, right at Snape. The former Potion's Master's eyes widened in alarm as he ducked out of the way of the black magic, which slammed into the wall behind him and gouged out a speck of dust.

Malfoy stood dumbfounded that anyone in class could have blocked such a spell. "Your turn, Malfoy," Harry said. "Raise your shield."

"Potter!" Snape shouted in warning.

Harry loudly called "_Stupefy!"_ so there would be no doubt what spell he cast. Malfoy raised a perfect _Protego_ spell, as Harry had no doubt he would, which is why he circled the tip of his wand when he cast. It was one of the many, many tricks Adonis showed him over his last three years of training. The result was a stunning spell that formed a piercing tip of almost solid magic that penetrated Draco's spell enough to allow the rest of the magic to flow through. To outsiders it appeared Harry's simple stunner broke Draco's shield and sent him somersaulting through the air.

"Fifty points from Gryffindor!" Snape shouted.

"Yes, sir," Harry said with a tight grin.

Snape stomped across the space until he stood an inch from Potter. "Do you really think your performance was that impressive?" he growled.

"Do you really think you can allow your pet Death Eaters to hurl restricted spells at me and not have my guardians or the DMLE find out about it?" Harry countered. "I'll have you and your entire house in Azkaban for this, and your name plastered across every publication in the wizarding world.

"The Headmaster's office, now!" Snape sputtered. "Class dismissed. Get out!"

Harry had time enough to see Hermione's outraged expression and Ron's slightly less angry but still concerned look, before he allowed the taller Snape to herd him out of the room and into the hallway. However, Harry walked as quickly as he could without running, forcing Snape to keep up with him rather than allowing the other man to herd him.

Finally they reached the headmaster's office and headed up. Dumbledore was there, as always, sitting serenely behind his desk as if he had spent his whole life waiting for this day. "Ahh, Harry, Severus, what can I do for the two of you today?"

"Mr. Potter saw fit to challenge me in class; he hexed another student without provocation; and then had the gall to threaten me with the DMLE!"

"Well, Mr. Potter, what do you have to say for yourself?" Dumbledore said.

"I'm guilty, better expel me," Harry said with forced calm. "In fact, I'm also feeling an urge to assault a professor, so add that to the mix. You might actually have to have Aurors come and arrest me for assault."

Snape snorted. "Always acting the…aaarrrgggh!"

Before the Potions Master started his fourth word, Harry dropped to a kneeling position and swung back his elbow with as much non-magical force as he could muster, right into Snape's groin. He then reached up, grabbed Snape by his greasy hair, and flipped him over his shoulder.

The man doubled over, clutching his crotch and groaning in agony. Harry straightened and was not surprised to see Dumbledore unmoved, watching with that damnable twinkle in his eyes. "That's for teaching Malfoy the entrails-expelling curse, you greasy-haired bastard." He stood and wiped his hands on his pants, while grinning angrily at Dumbledore. "Oops, looks like I assaulted a professor. Better expel me for sure, now."

"Feel better, Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore asked.

"I don't know, I'm feeling a few homicidal tendencies coming on too."

Between Snape's groans, Dumbledore said, "Severus, please go see Madame Pomfrey for a pain potion if you would. It's been long time since Mr. Potter and I had a talk."

"Albus, he struck me right in front of you!" Snape virtually screamed.

"And your entire house shot illegal curses at me in your class, including some that would undoubtedly include jail time," Harry said. "I'm tired of playing your games. If you're going to honestly believe I don't know what the hell an entrails-expelling curse is then you're as big an idiot as Sirius believed." He turned to Dumbledore. "And if you think I or others can't get word out that you allowed Snape to have his entire house toss dark curses at me, then you, Sir, have finally fallen into your dotage."

The serene smile broke somewhat. "Severus, leave us," Dumbledore said in an unusually commanding tone. Grimacing with rage and pain, Snape picked himself off the ground and left the room, walking with decided care.

"So it comes to this," Dumbledore said. "Tell me, Mr. Potter, do you have a headache?"

Harry fought with all his will not to tremble as he faced this twisted, but admittedly powerful wizard. "You know I do. You're feeling it too."

"Yes, though I admit I'm surprised. Originally, I was going to plan our mutual deaths so that neither one of us would have to suffer through the sheer tedium of clashing magical auras. Unfortunately, your friends in the Department of Mysteries decided they knew better than the most powerful wizard alive how to raise a Sport."

Harry stared incredulously at the man. "Raise me? You…you…bloody, arrogant git! You gave me to Muggles who hated me! They beat me and treated me like a fucking animal! Anyone with half a brain knows more than you how to raise a Sport!" He caught himself when he realized he was screaming, having lost all self-control. It took a deep breath and an exercise in Occlumency to gain even a semblance of his normal tone. "One more year, headmaster. You keep doing everything in your power to make me hate you, and I just can't understand why. What do you have to gain from my hating you? Why do you lavish as much attention on Malfoy as me? Why does it seem like you care more about evil than you do light?"

He was expecting Dumbledore to slam his hands on his desk and rise up and shout; he was at least expecting the headmaster to flare his aura in a threatening manner. Instead, Dumbledore simply sat in silence and stared at Harry for the longest time. Finally he leaned forward and said, "Harry, do you really think Draco's life is any less important than yours?"

Harry blinked, thought it over for a moment, and then said, "Yes, I do. He's the son of a Death Eater, is probably a Death Eater himself, and knowingly cast a lethal curse at me that the shield I was under orders to use could not stop. He tried to murder me today, probably because Snape told him so, but that doesn't matter. He still tried to murder me today. And we both know it was he who _Imperiused_ and assaulted Luna a couple of years ago. So, yes, I do think my life is worth more than his."

"Do you think, Harry, you could murder Draco Malfoy?"

"Murder? No. Kill…" Harry took a deep breath. "We both know I've killed before. We both know I'll have to kill again. It's really easy to die for your cause, Professor. It's even easier to make other people die for your cause. It's offensive to me that you ask that question, when the real question is why you weren't willing to kill Voldemort? Or Grindelwald before him?"

Dumbledore paled, showing an open response for the first time since the conversation began. "How could you…?"

"I have a support structure in place, Professor. I'm no longer the abused, clueless boy I was. I won't pretend I know everything, but it would not be wise to continue to proceed as if I know nothing. So answer me this—why? What could you possibly hope to gain by making me and those behind me your enemies? Sports aren't impervious—they've been killed before. And frankly, professor, I think my life is worth more than yours as well. And some very, very powerful people agree with me."

Very quietly, in a voice just above a whisper, Dumbledore said, "I owe you no explanation. I did what I must."

Harry cocked his head to one side, studying the stony face of a man he once worshipped as a god. "Then I owe you the same, and I will also do what I must. The next time Snape intentionally puts me in harm's way, I will kill him. The next time Malfoy uses a lethal curse on me or mine, I will make him pay. I will kill every child of every Death Eater in this school if it comes down to a choice between them or my people, and I suspect, deep down, you know I will. I won't enjoy it—Merlin knows that. But I'll do it. Because unlike others, I have the courage to truly do what it takes to win."

Harry stood and left the office, waiting for Dumbledore to call him. He barely made it to the door when he heard a voice said, "Detention, Mr. Potter. See Professor McGonagall at 8 p.m."

At least, Harry thought, he'd had the sense to send him to McGonagall and not Snape. "Very well, Professor."

With that, the door opened and Harry left the room.

Once he left the headmaster's tower, he saw it was fast approaching lunch. Though his stomach was in knots over a conversation that went much different than he thought it would, he still forced himself to walk straight with his shoulders thrown back. It was the look of confidence, Adonis told him. It was a way of using one's body language to project danger and confidence at the same time. Sometimes, the older man said, the right approach could stop a fight before it even began.

Unfortunately for Harry, by the time he reached the Great Hall, Malfoy was just returning from the Hospital Wing. Harry was walking through the doors, having caught sight of Ginny, Hermione and Ron, when he felt a brush of buzzing in the sub-audible range. No, it wasn't even hearing. He realized it was a similar feeling to the pressure he felt when he was close to Dumbledore. It was the feeling of magic approaching his aura.

"Harry!" he heard Luna's voice warn from his left.

Harry ducked and spun about while bringing his wand up to produce not a full _Protego_, but a smaller, rounded shield called a _Parma_ barely visible to the naked eye, with which he batted the offensive curse away. He didn't see exactly what the spell was, but he had no doubt it would have hurt.

"You think you're so good, Potter!" Malfoy said, spitting his name. "So brilliant? Boy Who Lived? You sent my dad to Azkaban you half-blooded bastard!"

"Your dad is a filthy Death Eater. He's right where he belongs," Harry snapped back.

"Damn you, Potter!" Malfoy screamed. "_Sectumsempra_!"

Harry burst forward while throwing up another _Aegis_ shield, this one angled at Crabbe. The larger boy cried out in pain as Malfoy's magic bounced off Harry's shield and shredded into his body like a massive cheese grater. Malfoy and Goyle both looked at their fallen comrade in horror before Harry dropped the shield a moment before grabbing Malfoy's wand-wrist. He spun under the startled Pureblood's arm but continued to hold the wrist, forcing the arm behind the taller boy's back.

With a down-thrust of his elbow, Harry snapped Malfoy's arm with a sickening _crack_. Before Malfoy could even scream Harry released the broken arm and grabbed the Slytherin's other, snapping it just as quickly. He followed with a leg-sweep that landed Malfoy on the floor and only then did the Slytherin begin screaming in pain.

After the initial moment of shock wore off, Goyle jumped to his friend's defense, only to receive a magic-driven kick to the chest that sent him flying back against the wall, where he slid to the floor and lay still. The whole fight took less than a minute.

Harry surveyed the three fallen boys with a numb feeling before he turned and saw Professor McGonagall and most of the Great Hall staring at him in shock.

"Mr. Potter!" McGonagall said, aghast.

"Bloody 'ell," Ron said around a mouth full of food.

"Can I kick Draco too?" Luna said with a happy hop and a little clap of delight.


	36. Desperately Seeking Susan

**A/N**: Chap 35 review responses are available in my forums. Thank you.

* * *

**Chapter Thirty-Six: Desperately Seeking Susan**

Ginny settled onto the seat beside Harry, close enough that their legs touched. "They've been doing that all day," she said.

Harry, who was trying his hardest to ignore the blatant stares not just of his housemates, but of much of the student population, nodded to himself. Across from them, Ron snorted. "What'd you expect, Harry? You kicked Malfoy's arse!"

"Language, Ron!" Hermione said absently. She had a large, dusty tome open and was pouring over it religiously.

Harry, Ginny and Ron looked up as Luna sat down next to Hermione, draped her arm around the older girl's shoulders as if they were best friends, and whispered, "It's on page 679, Fourth paragraph."

Such was Hermione's slavish attention to the book, and the speed and silence with which Luna moved that Hermione did not realize what was happening until Luna's lips were whispering into her ears. She screeched and jumped back into Ron while the rest of the table—and Harry and Ginny especially—tried not to laugh. "Luna!" Hermione said, struggling to regain her composure. "What are you doing here?"

"Fortunately, Harry's adventures this morning and lunch helped Professor Flitwick to forget my own detention."

"You got a detention?" Ron asked her. "Why?"

"Well, you see…"

"It's okay, Ron," Harry said, while Ginny said, "Luna, please, it's okay."

Hermione narrowed her eyes and looked amongst her friends suspiciously. "What's that about, then?"

"Luna will be glad to tell you," Harry said, and Ginny again added, "But you really, really don't want to know."

"Merlin, why is everyone so repressed? I was just masturbating," Luna said casually as she picked a pastry off Hermione's plate.

Ron turned a bright red, and Harry worried his friend was about to pass out again.

"Anyway," Harry said quickly, "it's done. Luna, did you get through?"

"I did. After all that, it's agreed you should serve the detention and be happy about it. I'm told that a complaint was filed against you with the DMLE, but Professor McGonagall personally gave testimony that Malfoy attacked first with a dark curse at your back and you defended yourself with nothing but shields. No one has filed a complaint on your behalf regarding what happened in class."

Hermione looked intensely from Luna and Harry, then down at her dusty tome, where she began flipping to the page Luna indicated previously. "How do you know what I'm looking for?' she finally asked.

"The library has ten copies of the official Charter and Rules of the Governors," Luna said. "I started researching as soon as I finished lunch."

Hermione nodded and began reading through the tome, scrunching her eyes at the archaic… Ron leaned over to look at the tight, hand-written script and gaped. "Bloody 'ell, Hermione, that's in Latin."

"Well, yes, the rules date from the late 12th Century," Hermione said.

"Although there is a large Gaelic influence in our magic," Luna said, "much of our modern spell-casting came through the Latin tradition via the French during William's invasion. The school was founded a century before the conquest, but the current administration, including the governors, was established in 1183. The Rules were written in the _Lingua Franca_ of the time."

"Which was Medieval Latin," Hermione said. The two girls, different in so many other ways, nodded in respect at the other's knowledge.

"Why not translate them, though?" Harry asked.

"Why did the Catholic Church resist the translation of the Bible into vulgar languages for so long?" Luna asked in answer. "It is to control information. Not even all the current governors know all the rules, so the application of those rules is controlled by those who do. That said you should know, Harry, that the school rules specifically do permit a student to take any action required to protect themselves or their property or chattel against an assault by any other in the event no instructor is available to intervene. You also have the right to demand a formal duel, and upon Draco's death you may take his wife or daughter to bride, plus take five of his sheep and a sum of 5 galleons. You may also keep his severed head on a pike if you wish, as a trophy."

"Good to know," Harry muttered.

Dinner passed quickly and the stares continued. Some were openly admiring—such as his dorm mates and most of the rest of Gryffindor House. The Weasley Twins actually declared him a Dark Lord and followed him as his loyal "servants" from dinner back to the dorm. The Hufflepuffs looked confused—the sheer violence Harry demonstrated was alarming, but none in the house of the Badgers could deny he was defending himself. The Ravenclaws were frightened because those seventh years who recognized the _Parma_ shield knew it was not taught in Hogwarts because of the precision and skill required to wield it.

The Slytherins were silent because Harry was attacked from behind and still managed to take down three of their number without a scratch, on the very same day he shielded against the entire house cursing him, and assaulted a professor with nothing more in terms of punishment than a detention. The Slytherins did not only respect that power, they feared it.

The whole castle knew that, between DADA and the attack in the Great Hall, Harry did something no other student could have done. Perhaps, some whispered, he really was the Chosen One.

At ten minutes to eight, Harry reported to Professor McGonagall for his assigned McGonagall stood up and watched in silence as Harry entered and sat. He noticed her lips pursed tightly. "You were not harmed, Mr. Potter?" McGonagall said as she led him through the castle.

"No, Ma'am."

"I feel a certain _déjà vu_, ."

"Yes, ma'am. Only now it's not a dragon I'm facing, it's something much worse."

She nodded again, and then placed a thick stack of parchment before him. "Mr. Potter, it occurs to me that you have been intentionally holding back on me. The _Parma_ shield is an intricately difficult piece of magic, and few outside of the duelling circuit know it. I dare say few Aurors know it. You used it silently. While I can understand not wanting to stand out for publicity's sake, as a teacher, and more importantly, as a friend of your parents, I find it intolerable. So, you are going to take a practice OWL for me, and I want to see, just between us, how good you really are. The results will not leave this room."

Harry couldn't help but grin. "Well, if you're sure, Professor. But if you think I'm impressive, you should see what Ginny can do. Charms is my strength—hers is Transfiguration."

McGonagall raised an eyebrow. "She is only a fourth year."

"I'm only a fifth. And I recognize this first question as something only a NEWT level student would know." And with that, Harry began his detention.

Later that night, he, Ginny and Luna had to cancel their training because the Room of Requirement would not open for them. They were so tired from the already long day they decided to just come back in three days time.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The world went on. Despite blatant glares from the Slytherins, the other students became accustomed to the fact that Harry was…different. No one could really put a finger on it, but everyone noticed when he walked into a room, even if he was slouching and actively trying to avoid notice.

When he frowned, those nearest, felt a brief panic, as if struck by either fear or concern, or sometimes an inexplicable sense of sadness. Other times when he smiled or laughed, those nearest him almost had to smile in response, as if struck by a cheering charm. And always, always Ginny was there with him, holding his hand or beaming at him while with a firm expression, making sure the other girls knew he was off limits. The fact that she could, to a lesser extent, make the other girls nervous with a glance, ensured there were none willing to challenge her claim.

And so school continued past Hermione's birthday party, which Harry and Ron worked together to make especially good, with cake in the common room and spiked punch. Hermione did not even comment on it, other than to say it was delicious before proceeding to down six. She snogged Ron into a stupefied smile before going to bed that night.

Harry settled down to work, comparing notes with Ginny and Luna for their homework, while their training sessions continued unabated.

When October 31st finally arrived, Harry woke with a feeling of foreboding he had difficulty shaking, but nothing happened all day. There were no reports of Death Eater attacks, nor any pain from his scar. The feast was spectacular as always, and all seemed right in the world. Until, shortly before midnight, Harry's dream of Ginny and Luna playing hide and seek with him in the forest abruptly burned away to show a vision of something completely alien.

"_Do you like what you see, Harry?" Voldemort whispered in his mind. _

_He floated in the air, held aloft by a spell of darkest magic, while around him a horde of witches and wizards in black robes and silver masks threw Muggle bombs at the walls of Azkaban. It was the oddest thing to see a wizard tossing Muggle explosives at the most magical structure outside of Hogwarts, but Harry could not deny it was effective. _

"_The wards repel all magical assault," Voldemort explained with glee, as if addressing a class of enthusiastic children, "but Azkaban was built before the advent of cannonry. The wards never took into account the power of Muggle explosives. A lesson learned from our Russian friends. You see? Already the walls are breached."_

_Indeed, Harry saw one corner of the castle crumble under the explosions. A bevy of crimson-clad Aurors rushed out onto the roof to return fire, only to be felled by half a dozen of the bombs. Harry felt his stomach clench at the destruction, as the Ministry men and women were blown off the walls to plummet to their deaths, if in fact, they were not blown apart and dead already. _

_More of Voldemort's servants arrived with armfuls of brooms; they flew straight to the breech, followed by dozens more witches and wizards. The air around the prison swarmed with Dementors, but the demonic entities made no effort to stop Voldemort's people. _

"_They are mine," the Dark Lord whispered. "Do you not see, Harry? You cannot beat me. I am immortal. I am all powerful. And I will win."_

_Harry could not respond as prisoners—both captured Death Eaters and just criminals who chose to serve Voldemort in return for their freedom—began pouring out of the prison in terrifying numbers. _

"_The System is broken, Potter," Voldemort said. "Ten guards for two hundred prisoners? Without the Dementors, Azkaban is nothing. And without Amelia Bones, the Ministry is nothing. Tell that to your friend the Minister when you see her next, won't you Potter? If you do see her again. You might not get the chance, though. I am going to feed her niece to the werewolves, and make her own death last for days. Ta ta, now!"_

Harry woke with a terrified, guttural scream and a flash of uncontrolled magic. He heard a pair of grunts followed by the _thuds_ of bodies falling. He reached to his night table and put on his glasses just in time to see Ron and Neville picking themselves up from the floor across the room, while Sean and Dean stood nearby staring in shock.

"Bloody hell, Harry!" Seamus said. "What was all that, then?"

Harry sat up further. "What happened?"

"You were having a nightmare," Neville replied. "You kept talking weird, then you were threatening the Minister and…"

He fell silent as Harry's eyes widened. Harry flew off his bed, reached into his trunk, and then froze. Gingerly, he looked around at his dorm mates, and then said, "Bugger all." He fished out a magical mirror and then left the room.

"He's bonkers," Dean muttered.

"And he's snoggin' your sister, mate," Seamus said.

Ron looked lost a moment. "Maybe, but he also broke Malfoy's arms."

"True," Seamus said with an approving nod.

Harry, meanwhile, ran until he hit the abandoned common room. He moved to the corner, for the room usually reserved for snogging couples, threw up a series of privacy charms, and touched the mirror with his Holly wand. "Adonis!"

The fact Adonis answered immediately just increased his concern. "Apollo."

"Voldemort talked to me somehow, through my scar," Harry said. "He's taken Azkaban."

"Yes, we know," Adonis said shortly.

"And he said he was going after Minister Bones and her niece next."

Adonis's bleak look turned murderous. "Potter, gather your team and secure the Minister's niece at all costs. No restrictions—her safety is paramount."

No restrictions—meaning lethal force was allowed if necessary. "I understand. I'll contact you when the target is secured."

Adonis's face disappeared. Harry tapped the mirror again, and a moment later a very groggy Ginny appeared. "Harry?"

"We have a mission right now, no restrictions, highest priority: Get dressed and to the common room in five minutes. Call Luna for me and tell her to meet us in front of the Hufflepuff common room in ten."

All business now, Ginny nodded, "Understood."

Harry terminated the connection and ran back upstairs where his dorm mates were still awake and talking. "Harry, what's going on?" Ron asked.

"I can't talk," Harry said quickly. He then paused a moment. "Ron, wake the house up. Boys and girls, then you and Hermione lock it down, okay?"

"What the hell?" Seamus asked.

Ron, though, was paling. "Harry, what's wrong?"

"Voldemort took Azkaban, and one or more of the students here might be in danger. Get Professor McGonagall to help if you needed, just lock the tower down until Ginny and I return, okay? There may be a threat in the castle."

Ron had enough training—and more importantly, had seen enough of Harry's training—to understand how serious his friend was. "Count on us."

While he spoke, Harry was throwing on his clothes, including his spare wand holster and his primary wrist holster. He knew his dorm mates had questions, but he couldn't help a feeling of urgency that prevented him from lingering to asnwer. He finally grabbed his invisibility cloak and bolted out of his room. He heard footsteps ahead and saw Ginny just a few feet down the stairs.

He reached for her hand and she took it, and in that instant when their magic touched he knew he would never need a security question for her again, so long as he could just touch her. The two sped out of the common room to the Fat Lady's remonstrations and ran flat-out for the Hufflepuff dorm.

"Situation?" Ginny asked.

"Voldemort's threatened to kill Susan. Our orders are to secure her at all costs, no restrictions."

"How did you find out?"

"He reached me through the Horcrux in my head," Harry snarled as they ran. "Azkaban has fallen!"

They were halfway to the kitchens when Luna joined them. "Adonis has filled me in," Luna said. "They've already secured the Minister. There was a viable threat against her that we just barely stopped." Harry noticed that aside from the wand tucked securely behind her ear, her forearms were bristling with bands of throwing knives.

They reached the portrait of the fruit bowl, and it was Ginny who said, "_Fidelitatis!_"

The portrait opened to reveal a perfectly round tunnel that lead to the Hufflepuff common room. Given the time of night, it was not surprising that no one was there. The three of them rushed inside. "We'll get Susan," Ginny and Luna said.

Harry nodded and then pulled the invisibility cloak over his head. Ginny and Luna entered the round tunnel that led to the girl's dorm. "How did you know the password?" Luna asked.

"Susan told me," Ginny said. "We are friends, you know."

"Of course."

They finally reached the fifth-year girl's dorm and quietly opened it up. With a silent "_Point Me_" spell, they were able to quickly find Susan's bed. Ginny went to her friend while Luna efficiently placed silencing charms around the other four beds.

Ginny sat on the side of the bed and gently shook Susan's shoulder. The Hufflepuff came awake with a startled gasp. "What…what….Ginny?"

"Susan, listen carefully," Ginny said. "Remember when your aunt told you to hang around Harry and I, last year? It's because we work for the Ministry. We've received a credible threat against your life. You're aunt's safe, but we need to get you out of Hogwarts until we know for sure it's safe for you. Can you get dressed quickly? Pack a quick bag—essentials only. We don't know when you're coming back."

Terrified, Susan nodded and jumped from her bed and threw on a pair of trousers and a loose black jumper. With a quick flick of her wand and the word "_Pack" _she had her overnight bag packed and ready. They slipped back out as Luna removed the silencing charms.

She raised her wand and a sudden bang woke Susan's dormmates. "What the hell!" Hannah Abbot shouted.

"Listen up," Ginny barked, "there are Death Eaters in the castle. This isn't a joke. Get out of this room and go to the seventh year's room now! Hurry!"

Leaving the stunned students in their beds, Luna, Ginny and Susan were not halfway through the tunnel when they heard a massive explosion followed by a scream of pain and several other shouts of anger. They emerged into a common room filled with dust and saw that the passage leading out of the room had been collapsed.

Harry stood in the middle of the room, bundling his cloak into an oversized pocket of his school robes. "Well, that didn't work," he muttered.

A moment later Pomona Sprout rushed out of her adjoining office clad in a garish yellow night robe. "What in Merlin's name is…Harry Potter? What is happening here? Why are you in the Hufflepuff dormitories?"

"There are Death Eaters in the castle," Harry said in an authoritative voice that clearly surprised the Head of Hufflepuff. "They have been sent to assassinate the Minister's niece. I'm here to get her to safety. Ministry forces are en route, but until then we need to get her out of the dorm. Is there another way out? I've barricaded the main entrance, so the others should be safe enough."

It was a mark of Pomona Spout's intelligence and loyalty that she looked not at Harry, but at Susan. "My auntie told me to trust him, Professor," Susan said quickly.

"Then I suppose I shall as well," she said. "Since the new wards have closed down all out-bound Floos except for the Headmaster's, I would say that's our best bet."

As they spoke, the rest of the Hufflepuffs emerged, attracted by the commotion. "Good, Summerby!" Sprout said to the Seventh Year prefect. "Keep everyone in their individual rooms, and then activate the emergency wards. Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to leave the dorm. Understand?"

Sommerby nodded. "Well, come on," Sprout said to Harry. He waited for Luna and Ginny, with Susan between them, to follow the Head of House to a secondary exit before he brought up the rear.

That was the only thing that saved them all. The secret passage led them to the kitchen, where the elves were working quite diligently on the next morning's meals. Unfortunately, they were not alone.

The moment Sprout stepped out of the passage, a black spell slashed horizontally across her body, enveloping her in purple flame. She did not even have time to scream as she dropped. Ginny and Luna both threw Susan to the ground and covered her body with their own while Harry, growling in rage at the strike against one of the kindest professors in the school, jumped over the three girls and landed headlong into a roll. He felt a buzz of magic and based on that brought himself out of his roll with a magically-reinforced kick of both legs.

He did not see who it was, but felt a satisfying thud of flesh and bone against his feet as the Death Eater went flying back across the kitchen. He got back on his feet in a moment and summoned a _Parma_ shield to swat away a pair of curses as he oriented himself to the situation.

Luna did the same from the edge of the tunnel. "Two, three, four and six!" she shouted.

Harry fired blasting curses at the directions of the clock based on her call, trusting her directions implicitly. His first two curses were met with screams of agony before the other two were dodged. Ginny rolled out to his side as a killing curse swept toward them.

Harry summoned a large pot to block the curse while Ginny cast a bone-breaker at the caster. Their first assailant cried out, before Harry's follow-up bone-breaker struck his head and silenced him forever. The last of their attackers threw a curse at them while Harry was busy, but Ginny shielded with her own _Aegis_ and directed the spell back at the Death Eater, while Harry followed it with a broad-area blasting curse.

"Twelve, clear!" Harry shouted.

"Three, clear!" Ginny called.

"All clear," Luna echoed. She bundled the sobbing Susan out of the tunnel. "What about Professor Sprout!" the red-headed Hufflepuff said.

"We'll send help," Harry promised.

"Are those men…dead?" Susan asked as they swept her out of the kitchen.

"I hope so," Harry said. They stopped at the kitchen entrance while Harry peeked out.

"How did you guys get so good?" Susan asked.

"Years of training," Ginny said. She hugged her friend. "Hang in there, Susan. We'll get you out of this. Harry doesn't lose, remember?"

"Yeah," Susan sounded as if she were in both shock and awe.

Harry signalled them and the three girls joined him in the hall. He quickly pulled out his invisibility cloak and handed it to Luna. Luna nodded and threw it over herself and Susan. "What about Ginny?" Susan asked, not at all surprised that Harry had a cloak.

"Hell, for that matter, what about yours, Luna?" Harry asked.

"Forgot it, sorry," Luna said. "Even psychopaths get flustered, you know. I was sleeping too."

"No worries, I'll be able to help Harry more like this," Ginny said tensely.

Harry stiffened and Ginny turned to follow his gaze as Snape ran around the corner.  
"Potter!" the Head of Slytherin said. "What are you two doing out here?"

"I heard an explosion," Harry lied. "I thought I could help."

"Stupid brat!" Snape snarled. He obviously could not detect Luna or Susan. "There are Death Eaters in the castle!"

Harry and Ginny shared a glance and decided not to comment on the sheer irony of such a statement coming from Snape of all people. "I know," Harry said. "I saw some."

"Well, come on, you fool!" Snape finally said. "You need to get to the Headmaster immediately!"

He walked out in front of them, walking at a brisk pace. With little reason not to, Harry and Ginny followed, while behind them Harry could feel the slight buzz of Luna's magic and knew she was following as well.

Somehow, it did not surprise him that Snape turned a corner and led them into a wall of twelve Death Eaters. Harry and Ginny raised their shields the moment the Death Eaters cast. Their magic was so closely entwined that instead of two magical shields, they created a single, larger shield that was able to hold off all twelve curses. Of course, Harry admitted to himself the curses were not meant to kill, but incapacitate.

Snape turned and stood with the Death Eaters, a sneer on his face and a curse on his lips.

Harry and Ginny looked at one another a moment before a wash of killing-green magic flared behind them and flew a foot from Harry's arm into a stunned Death Eater. "No restrictions," Luna's voice called from the air.

Harry looked at Snape, and calmly said, "_Avada Kedavra!"_

His killing curse streaked toward the stunned professor, who did not have time to conjure anything to block it. Instead, the selfish man levitated another of the Death Eaters into the curse before he turned on his heel and ran. The remaining Death Eaters, realizing the teens were holding back nothing, did the same. Ginny transfigured a wall to block the killing curses while Harry conjured a shower of darts that Ginny then banished toward the enemy.

The darts were followed by throwing knives as Luna left the confines of the cloak to defend her teammates. The Death Eaters did not just stand still, but they were clearly not at the level of training that Harry and his companions were. The fact that Harry and Ginny wielded lethal curses without flinching was as disturbing to the Death Eaters as they hoped their masks were to the kids.

But the masks did not scare Harry, they infuriated him. "_Avada Kedavra!_" he said, casting another killing curse. He watched another Death Eater fall dead. They could have easily done what Harry and Ginny were doing, alternating attack and defense, but they were not cohesive enough to defend each other, and instead just stood and cursed until they died.

Ginny conjured a cannonball and banished it into another Death Eater, while Luna cast another killing curse. "Fire, on three!" Ginny hissed.

They counted down, and then the two of them cast, "_Fiendfyre!_"

The hellfire burned out of their wands to the startled horror of the remaining Death Eaters and quickly consumed them. Harry and Ginny then fought with all their magic to bring the fire back under control, until at last it dissipated.

"Merlin," Susan whispered from beneath the cloak. "You three are amazing."

"Shhhhh!" Ginny said. "It's a state secret."

"Although it is true that we are quite magnificent," Luna said.

"Now," Harry growled, "let's go find Snape."

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading! They kept me from making the silly tomb/tome error! Thank goodness!


	37. Shall We Not Revenge

A/N: Chapter 36 Review responses are available in my forums.

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**Chapter Thirty-Seven: Shall We Not Revenge?**

Luna and Ginny surrounded Susan and disappeared back under the cloak while Harry prowled ahead of them with his wand at the ready. He paused long enough to disillusion himself before leading the way.

They could hear occasional thuds from spell-fire and distant explosions. They ignored the distant sounds, though, as they escorted Susan toward the headmaster's office and the Floo that would evacuate her from the school.

A shockingly loud scream caused all four of them to jump, and though he could not see them Harry was sure he heard a muffled shriek from Susan through the clamped hands of either Luna, or Ginny, or both.

Harry stepped around the corner to see where the scream originated; what he saw made his stomach clench. Malfoy, healed once again, stood over a writhing form on the floor. His face was set in a grimace of rage, while behind him Crabbe and Goyle watched with grins. "You didn't think we'd find out?" Malfoy said. His voice was so thick it sounded as if he were crying. "You think we'd let you get away with betraying us? _Crucio!_"

The figure screamed again, and Harry realized it was a girl. As she thrashed about on the floor, he caught a glimpse of blonde hair and knew instinctively that Daphne Greengrass was paying the price for trying to play both ends against the middle.

"Are you through?" a new voice said.

Malfoy released the torture curse as Snape stepped into the hall. "The mission has failed," Snape snapped. "Potter and his whores got to Bones first."

"What about the others?"

"Dead," Snape spat. "The Dark Lord wanted his test—well, he has it: Potter's wiped out almost all of them. Fortunately they were new recruits, so it is not too hard of a loss."

"What about Greengrass?"

"Consider this your test, Malfoy."

Draco grimaced as he looked down at his housemate. He took a long, ragged breath as Harry started running toward him, trying to get within accurate spell casting range. "_Avada Kedavra!_"

The spell failed. The light that emerged was a pale green mist that brushed gently against Greengrass's robes. The girl started sobbing in relief as Draco scowled.

"How do you think you will ever serve the Dark Lord if you cannot kill?" Snape demanded. "Kill her!"

Malfoy raised his wand once again, brimming with determination, only to double over with a loud, pained expelling of breath. All present heard a loud thump and saw Malfoy's nose shatter against an invisible foot as he flew back away from Greengrass.

Red light flashed out and in a second, Goyle and Crabbe were both unconscious, while Snape backed away. "_Homenum Revelio!"_ he shouted.

Harry felt his disillusionment charm blow away before a wave of detection magic, but didn't care. "Killing little girls now, Snape?"

"It wasn't the blonde I'd prefer," Snape said, "but there is a price to betraying the Dark Lord. Trying to warn you was a mistake."

Harry fought to keep his breathing under control as he faced a man who, in a very real sense, he hated even more than Voldemort himself. "So cards are on the table, are they? Not even going to pretend to be Dumbledore's pet anymore?"

In answer, Snape snapped off a killing curse. Harry spun away and answered with a bone-crushing curse.

As Harry and Snape fought, Susan felt hands pulling her away. "What about Harry?" she whispered urgently.

"Our job is to get you to safety," Ginny said grimly. "Then we help Harry."

Susan was too shocked by the answer to respond or resist, and so she found herself guided to the headmaster's tower. The entrance was open, with the Gargoyle blown off its pedestal entirely. The girls stepped onto the stairs, but the stairs did not move like normal, forcing them to trudge up manually.

Susan was panting tiredly by the time they reached the Headmaster's office. They found the room in disarray, with many of the old wizard's trinkets broken or outright shattered into dust. The huge desk was overturned with parchment strewn all over the floor.

They found Dumbledore on the floor, still alive but slowly turning purple. Luna left the cloak and knelt down at the old wizard's side and sniffed. "He is not breathing, but it does not appear to be a curse."

"Snape's a potions master," Ginny said.

"We need a bezoar!" Susan said.

Luna, however, was already pulling out one of the magical stones from a pocket of her robe. "You carry a bezoar with you?" Susan said, nonplussed.

"With a potions master as my enemy, yes," Luna said. "Also, I've been slipped minor potions occasionally by my housemates. They do not like me." She slipped the stone into Dumbledore's mouth and then forced his jaw closed.

A moment later the purple began to fade. Dull blue eyes opened without really seeing anything. "Severus, how could you?" he croaked.

"Quite easily, it would appear," Luna said dryly. "You fought him through the poison?"

"Not enough time," Dumbledore gasped. "He used my Floo connection to bring Death Eaters into the castle. What is happening?"

"Death Eaters came in an attempt to kill the Minister's niece," Luna said in her dry, matter-of-fact voice. "We were able to neutralize them. However, we came across Snape and three students torturing a fourth. Harry has engaged them to ensure we had free access to the Floo. You must open the Floo for us so we can evacuate Susan."

"Of course," Dumbledore whispered weakly. "Help me up, please."

Luna did so, helping him sit up so he could point his wand at the fireplace. "It is now open," he said.

Ginny ran to the flame, threw powder in, and stuck in her head. "Artemis to Control, are you there?"

Though they could not see him, they heard Adonis's voice. "Artemis, sit-rep?"

"Subject acquired safely. Enemy agents did infiltrate the castle but we've neutralized all of them but Snape. Apollo has engaged. Subject is ready to evacuate."

"Subject is clear to go directly to Bones Manor. And then I'm coming through."

"Understood,"

Ginny backed away before motioning for Susan to approach. "You're clear."

Susan hugged the other red-head hard. "Thank you!" she said. "Please make sure to give Harry a kiss for me."

"I will!" Ginny said. "Go, now!"

Once Susan was gone, the flame erupted and Adonis stepped through in his Unspeakable cloak, followed by two more Unspeakables. "Take us to Harry now!" he said in the distorted voice of a cloaked agent.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Harry forgot just how good Snape really was when not caught by surprise. The battle in the middle of his third year was etched in his mind for many reasons, but the fight with Snape was not one of them. Until now; now he remembered that Snape single-handedly held back Lupin, Sirius, Harry, Ginny and Luna, and almost killed Luna in the process.

For one, Snape was powerful. For another, he was wickedly fast, negating any advantage Harry may have had in that area. But worst of all, he was exceedingly well trained both in duelling and the dark arts. His curses were universally lethal and difficult to block with mere magical shields. But on top of that, Snape fought with a cold rage easily as strong as anything Harry felt. Both combatants employed the _Parma_ and _Aegis_ shields solely because the _Protego_ could not have stopped anything either was shooting at each other.

Nor was the duel limited to traditional destructive spells. Harry summoned Snape twice, only to have the potions master slash at him with a flame whip while in mid air. Snape banished Daphne Greengrass at Harry, forcing Harry to levitate the screaming and terrified girl roughly out of the way, only to then have to duck a killing curse. His shout for her to run did little good, though. She tried to stand and run, only to stumble back to the floor; she was still deep in the throes of post-_Cruciatus_ damage and couldn't walk on her own yet. She sobbed and crawled away while Harry and Snape battled.

For his own part, Harry had a full year of intense training under his belt since the battle at the Shrieking Shack, and his power had increased tremendously. However, his extra power did little good if he couldn't land any spells on his enemy.

"Why won't you just die, Potter!" Snape snarled, voicing his own considerable frustration at not being able to defeat a fifteen-year-old boy.

"Just a bad habit, I guess," Harry managed to say before he spun away from a vicious heart-exploding curse. Since he seemed to be at an impasse in magic, he summoned his strongest _Aegis_ and rushed forward.

Snape countered with a killing curse, but seemed momentarily startled when Harry leapt over the curse, landed in a perfect roll and then snapped out with both feet right at Snape's knees. The magically enhanced kick should have snapped the Potion Master's knees like twigs, but at the last second Snape threw back both legs as if to fall.

Harry's kick got the man's legs, but with his feet off the ground he just propelled him into a front-flip right onto Harry himself. Harry had just a moment of surprise and shock before he felt a deep, white-hot ripping pain in his stomach and looked up into a pair of black, satisfied eyes.

"Do you think that little blonde whore of yours is the only one who can use a knife?" Snape whispered into Harry's ear, almost lovingly. "Your own mother taught me how to counter that move, boy. She was a far better Unspeakable than you will ever be."

Snape pushed himself to his feet, using the knife buried in Harry's gut as leverage. Harry screamed then, while Snape backed away with a blood soaked hand.

"So ends the Boy Who Lived," Snape said, his voice dripping with loathing and irony. "_Avada Ked_…. _oomph_."

A blur of gray robes flew foot-first into Snape, sending the man flying backward. Harry saw the Unspeakable quickly gain his feet as Snape did the same. Both men paused a moment, before the Unspeakable pulled down his cowl to show Adonis's face. "You," Snape said with venom. "I knew nobody could be as foppish as you."

"You would be surprised, my dear boy," Adonis said with his best Lockhart voice and smile. "Now that you've had fun with the children, are you ready to play with someone your own size?"

Meanwhile, Harry was aware of desperate, sobbing voices and weakly turned away from a fight he had dreamed of watching, to see Ginny and Luna both kneeling beside him with two more cloaked Unspeakables. Their voices seemed to be coming from a distance, or through a wall of water that made it hard to understand. The cloaked Unspeakables were the ones working on him, but it was Ginny's teary brown eyes that made him sad.

"Sorry," he whispered.

She said something, but he wasn't sure what it was. Instead, he turned his head to watch the fighting continue.

Snape and Adonis moved almost like dance partners. Casting was completely silent, and yet there was an undeniable music to their movements. Powerful magic swirled through the corridor, blasting walls, burning tapestries and shattering statuary and other decorations.

Nor did either man move through unscathed. Within minutes both were bleeding from minor cuts and scratches that they had to absorb to avoid more deadly curses. The floor began to become a hazard in itself from the rubble caused by their fighting.

Adonis was no longer smiling—his face was caught in a blank mask of utter concentration as he faced up against an opponent apparently just as good as he was. Snape's own face was caught in a perpetual snarl, as if he were vocalizing his hatred the entire time they fought.

It was the most amazing duel Harry had ever seen, and as his eyes grew heavy, he began to wonder just how it was that he lasted as long as he did against his former professor. Suddenly he felt a wash of magic that did not soothe him, but made his head pound and his muscles clench.

"ENOUGH!" Dumbledore said. The exhausted, wasted figure of the Headmaster raised his wand and unleashed a wave of stunning magic that shot down the hall like a tsunami. Both Adonis and Snape raised their own magical shields, but unbelievably the wave of magic shattered both men's defenses and slammed into them, knocking them both unconscious. For the first time, Harry understood just what it meant to be an adult sport.

Dumbledore lowered his hand and took a deep breath before his eyes rolled into his head and he folded to the floor. Harry heard voices speaking and saw Ginny run down the hall where she woke Adonis after three tries. The Unspeakable shook his head to clear the webs before he stood and walked unsteadily over to Snape.

She came back; her face streaked with tears, and knelt down beside Harry. His eyes were growing heavy again, but he didn't want to close them for fear of missing something important. That is, until Ginny leaned down and kissed him gently. "Rest now," she whispered into his ear. "It's over."

"Okay," he smiled back weakly.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

With Amelia Bones in protective seclusion following the coordinated assassination attempts on the lives of both her niece and herself, Arthur Weasley was at the moment the head of the Wizarding government in England. He never thought he would find himself in such a vaunted position of authority—primarily because he never had any desire to have it. Arthur was a modest man with modest goals in life—a good job that allowed him to earn enough to ensure his family was properly cared for, and to enjoy the love of those he cared for.

Magically, Arthur was quite strong, approaching the 80th percentile on the Miltventnor, which was not unusual for a seventh son. The fact that he was the only one of those sons still living saddened him immensely. Molly was traumatized over the loss of her two brothers, Gideon and Fabian, but between the war and a terrible dragon pox outbreak, Arthur lost six brothers.

Still, he was content with his own family. He and Molly never really set out to have seven children of their own, but then again she was at the time rather haphazard with the birth control potions. But by the time Ron came along, they knew they were done. Molly brewed her potions with the exactness of an accomplished potions journeyman, and took the potions religiously.

And yet, somehow, their little miracle was born anyway: A girl—the first girl born to any Weasley since his great aunt Muriel. And when Ginny was born, everything felt complete. She was everything Arthur had ever dreamed of in a daughter, when he allowed himself the hope of having a little girl. She was even more beautiful than Molly was as she grew up, with the Weasley coloring but a face that combined the best features of both the Prewitt and Weasley lines.

As she grew up dreaming of marrying Harry Potter, he saw in her the very best of the family. She was easily as smart and powerful as Bill, with an eye for mischief as troublesome as the twins, but with a surprisingly kind heart that was all from their mother. And on top of all those qualities, she was so stunningly beautiful.

It should not have been surprising to find her passed out next to Harry. She rested her head on her folded arms on the side of his bed, while the rest of her remained in the chair she had obviously been sitting in to visit him. Her face was streaked with old tears that made the light mascara she wore run, and her hair was a tangled mess, and _Oh Merlin she looked so grown up!_

A surge of emotion struck like a mallet, and he sat down on the bed next to his children before he fell, weeping silently. The boy he had come to love as his own looked pale and lifeless, with narrow threads of darkness just under his skin reaching up his neck toward his face and ears, while Ginny even in her sleep held his hand. His little girl loved this boy, just as much as he knew Harry loved her. And he, Arthur—their protector—could _not_ _protect_ them! They did not deserve this; they did not deserve to by lying here on the verge of death like this!

He heard the soft shuffle of feet and looked up to see Poppy Pomfrey standing at the foot of Harry's bed, wiping her nose with a kerchief. "Oh dear, I'm sorry," she said softly. "It has been a long day, and I'm a tad emotional. We just now got Pomona stabilized with those St. Mungo's healers, the Headmaster's collapse startled us all, and one of my students was exposed to almost five minutes of the _Cruciatus._ And then this—it was so much to take in."

The med-witch, in a rare unguarded moment, sat down next to Arthur and looked at the two children with an expression fully as heartbroken as his. She was only ten years his senior, and so he never experienced her care while a student, but looking at her now he was glad his children had her there to help.

Still, it did not stop the rage and anguish he felt. "Look what they did, Poppy," he finally whispered. "Look what they did to my kids. My…kids."

Without a word, she placed an arm around her shoulder. "It's not over, Arthur. He is fighting the poison. There is cause to hope. The fact his magic has managed to prevent the poison from reaching his bone marrow is remarkable. The Headmaster…well, Harry is a remarkably powerful young wizard."

"He is at that," Arthur agreed softly as he wiped his eyes. His vision was still blurry from doing so when the shadow appeared. Beside him, Poppy stiffened as the cloaked Unspeakable stepped to the edge of the bed with a vial in his or her gloved hand. The vial appeared filled with a silvery fluid, like watery mercury.

The voice that emerged from the cowl had no gender, muffled and altered as it was by the cloak's inherent magic. "Ginny Weasley."

Ginny sat up with a snort, wiping drool from the corner of her mouth and sleep from her eyes. "Daddy?" she asked sleepily. "What are you…?" She caught sight of the cloaked figure and went very still, before in a clear, surprisingly authoritative voice she said, "Identify."

"Aesclepius," the figure said. "Authorization Epsilon Omega eight eight twelve."

Ginny sagged a little, but Arthur noticed it wasn't entirely with relief. "He's dying," she said softly.

"You and you alone, can save him," the cloaked figure code named Aesclepius said. He held up the vial. "Have you ever heard the fables where the prince saves the poisoned princess with True Love's kiss?"

"Yes," Ginny said in a small voice.

"That myth is based on this potion. It is written that during the fight that divided the Founders of Hogwarts, Godric Gryffindor lay on the edge of death, poisoned by Salazar Slytherin in his last act of malice. His wife appealed to their friend Rowena for help, and together the two brewed an elixir never seen before—a brew of unicorn blood freely given, and phoenix tears cried in sadness, the milk of a witch recently delivered, and finally, the tears of one who loves the fallen more than her own life."

As the Unspeakable told them what was in the vial, Arthur felt his stomach clenching. "I've heard this story," he said. "The one who gives the tears is at risk too. If she does not love him more than herself…"

"She will absorb the poison and die," the Unspeakable confirmed. "And that is why, Ginevra, you must be absolutely sure…"

Ginny stood and snatched the vial before the Unspeakable could even finish, and certainly before her father could stop her. She started weeping as soon as she learned what was in the vial, and simply held it to her cheeks to catch the tears.

The vial started to glow and pulse with magic, shifting color from a soft silver, to a bright, pink glow that made Arthur warm inside even from several feet away. "Ginny, you can't…"

"I love him," Ginny told him urgently. "More than myself. If he…Daddy, I can't do this without him."

Arthur reared back, struck by how clearly she echoed Harry himself, that day they brought him home from the Ministry. The Unspeakable stood silent and unmoving, while Arthur stared at his daughter's face. She stood resolute, wiping her tears with the heel of one hand as she clutched the glowing vial with the other.

"Okay, pumpkin," Arthur said his voice cracking as he spoke. "If you're sure."

Without hesitation, Ginny rushed to Harry's side and poured the potion between his slightly parted lips, gently caressing his throat like a medical professional to make him swallow. Whatever they were expecting, the reality was anti-climactic. There were no glowing lights or flashes of magic, nor any crystalline gongs and phoenix song. But Arthur did notice that the reaching lines of darkness on Harry's neck began very slowly to retract.

"The potion has worked," the Unspeakable said. "You have saved him, child. Your love for him is true, as his is for you."

"Thank you," Ginny whispered, before she sat down on the side of the bed next to Harry and took his hand.

The Unspeakable simply turned and left, saying nothing else to anyone. "Ginny?" Arthur asked.

"We can't help the danger," she whispered as if he did not speak. "It comes with who and what we are. It seems like tomorrow may always be our last day together, and it just…" She wiped her eyes again and looked up at her father at last. "It's him, Daddy. It's always been him, and it always will be. I know we're young, but please understand. It's him."

"I know, Pumpkin," Arthur said. "I know."

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks as always to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading!


	38. Hubris

A/N: Chapter 37 review responses are available in my forum.

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**Chapter Thirty-Eight: Hubris**

[**Author's Note: I should not have to say this, but based on past feedback I feel it is necessary to point out that the views of a character born to a starkly conservative family in 19****th**** Century England are not necessarily those of the author. When writing my characters, I try to be true not just to whom that character is, but also to where and when that character comes from, regardless of whether I agree (or disagree) with what that character feels, thinks or says. Please remember that when reading this chapter.]**

In a safe house under the Fidelius, with Arthur as her secret keeper, Amelia Bones rested on a sofa with her niece, who through the fires of war was the only other surviving member of her family, having been orphaned as an infant in the final days of fighting.

The shock of the previous night's attack had been plaguing the teenager all day, driving her to giddy, hysterical laughter in one second and tears the next. Now, after a day as harrowing emotionally as the previous night was with danger, Amelia snuggled her niece and simply thanked Merlin that they were alive.

If not for the warning from the Department of Mysteries, they would not have caught the fact that Senior Auror Proudfoot was under the _Imperius_, and it would be too late for her. He was so close to her when the force of Unspeakables crashed in to save her came in that she would not have had a chance.

"You should have seen them, Auntie," Susan whispered.

Amelia started, having thought that the girl was asleep. "Who?"

"Harry, Ginny and Luna. They're the ones that saved me, you know."

Amelia did not know that. She was told by Croaker that assets from his Department were able to extract Susan safely from the castle, but nothing more. "What happened?" she asked her niece.

"Ginny and Luna woke me up and told me I had to leave, but when we got to the Common Room, Harry had collapsed the tunnels." She went on to recount the story in detail, and as she did Amelia was at once amazed, terrified, and also deeply, profoundly impressed.

"Tomorrow," she said, "I'm going to want to view those memories."

"I know," Susan said with a yawn. "You know, I think as long as Harry and his girls are at Hogwarts, I'll be safe there too. They're real heroes." She snuggled closer, using Amelia's lap as a pillow, and finally went to sleep.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Two days after his collapse at the castle and the attack on the Bones family, Albus Dumbledore slumped into his brother's bar under a hooded robe and settled in on a stool at the dirty bar. "Ogden's," he ordered.

Aberforth Dumbledore complied without a word, not even looking at his only living family. Because of the well-publicized attack at the school, the bar was empty. People did not want to risk going out. Aberforth went back to polishing filthy glasses with a filthy rag, while the elder Dumbledore sipped the firewhiskey.

They stayed that way for some time, before Albus asked, "Abe, am I a good man?"

Aberforth snorted. "You're a complete, utter bastard," he said. "What now, you come into this bar after forty years and expect me to play confessor?"

Albus did not move, but rather poured himself another shot of flaming whiskey. "A man I trusted with my life betrayed me and made me look the fool."

"Easy enough to do, nor would he be the first, would he?"

With a sad nod, Albus finished his firewhiskey in a single shot. He poured another glass. "Abe…he poisoned me. A bezoar revived me, but the poison has seeped into the marrow of my bones. I have only a year or two at most, and that's with the most aggressive treatment they can provide."

"What do you want, a hug?"

He looked into his brother's face, and Aberforth looked right back with a stony expression. "A man I thought was one of my closest friends tried to kill me—in point of fact he has done just that. The boy whom I thought would be the saviour of us all has come to hate me every bit as much as Tom Riddle ever did. Everything I've ever done has been for the greater good, but after all this…I have to know, Abe. Please, tell me. Am I good man?"

The younger Dumbledore stepped to Albus's bottle and took a huge, magnificent guzzle from the bottle itself, letting the magic of it wash over him until steam burst from his ears. When the steam stopped coming out of his ears, he said, "Riddle and Potter have nothing on me, Brian. I've hated you my whole life. You betrayed the family and you betrayed us. Do you think our parents would have understood for one second what you did with Gellert?"

"How did you…?"

"I saw you, you damned sodomite!" Aberforth roared suddenly. Just as quickly his voice dropped back down. "I saw you, humping away at each other like…like…damn it all." He took another long swig. "And so did Ariana. It broke her, that last sight. It was so unnatural. It just broke her. Her body might have died when you and Gellert had your fight, but her mind died the day she saw you loved that boy more than us." He straightened and looked his brother in the face—blue eyes to gray.

"You ask if you're a good man? I think you want to be, but deep down you know you're not. You twist things, Brian. You wanted to protect the Muggles as a kid by forcing them to your will as slaves to wizards. You bought into Gellert's ideas of the greater good because, deep down, you hated the Muggles for what they did to _her_, and that dad went to Azkaban because of them. And when you grew up, you tried to protect wizarding kind by forcing their children to your will, because deep down you hated them for having what we didn't—parents. But you've never figured out that you can't control the world if you can't…even…control…yourself!"

When he finished he poured Albus another shot and took the bottle away. "Finish up. I'm closing early today."

"Do you even care that I'm dying?" Albus said a plea in his old, broken voice.

Aberforth looked back at Dumbledore, and for that instant the sheer, ragged emotions of the man showed on his face as a lone tear ran down into his beard. "No," he lied, before he turned and stumped into a back office of the bar.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

While the Dumbledore brothers spoke, newly appointed head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement Devon Williamson stepped out of the interrogation room that held Severus Snape, and scowled deeply at Shacklebolt.

"Amelia is not going to like this," the taller Auror said.

"I know," Williamson said. Both men turned and looked at the smug expression on the Potion master's face through the charmed glass. "He is lying through his teeth, even with Veritaserum."

"He's probably dosed himself with the antidote."

"And he's the best Occlumens I think I've seen," Williamson added. "Merlin's balls, he broke through my shields before I even got close to his. I had to back out before he saw anything. I didn't believe Robards when he told me how good Snape was."

The door behind them opened and both men straightened as the Minister for Magic stepped in. It was her first full day back at work, and her face dragged with exhaustion. "Relax, gentlemen" Amelia said crisply, despite the shadows around her eyes. "Devon, from your expression I take it he's not talking?"

"Oh, he's talking all right, Minister. It's what he's saying that's bothering us."

Amelia raised a single brow. The former Auror and former head of the DMLE was a woman of few words, but never had trouble making people understand her.

"He's claiming under Veritaserum that the Malfoy boy and his cronies were all under his personal _Imperius_ curse; that Malfoy's assaults on Potter and the Greengrass girl were at his orders, and not Malfoy's own volition."

"When does the Malfoy boy turn sixteen?" Bones asked, like most law enforcement leaders thinking of the flow of money.

"March," Shacklebolt said. "He takes his O.W.L.s in June and after that has the right to petition for emancipation, given his parent's status as Death Eaters. He would have the right to openly access and use the Malfoy fortune then, unless we are able to convict him."

"Damn," Amelia said softly. "Has Greengrass contacted you?"

"Yes, he's demanding to know why Draco hasn't been placed under arrest yet," Devon said.

"Bloody hell," the Minister said. "Sometimes I wish I were like Fudge. I'd have Malfoy out of Hogwarts so fast wouldn't know what day it was. While he's in that castle, no one is safe, much less Susan."

"Or Daphne Greengrass," Williamson said.

"Why not just dose Draco with Veritaserum?" Shacklebolt asked.

"And ask him what? We went through that the first time with the first war. He'll say he did it of his own free will, because he wouldn't have known it wasn't his own will. That's the insidiousness of the curse. And with Snape openly claiming to have done it…he's bought himself a spy in Hogwarts."

"So what about Greengrass?" Devon asked.

"I'll talk to Antonius, and then we'll see what security steps we can take. At the very least we're going to be moving her out of Slytherin and assign protection."

"Good luck with that conversation," Devon said. "And Snape?"

Amelia narrowed her eyes. "Remand him to the Department of Mysteries for further interrogation. Tell them we don't want him back."

"Minister?" Shacklebolt said. "Are you sure?"

"Sure of what, Kingsley? We don't have a functional prison at the moment, and I'm not sure I'm willing to devote the resources necessary to have one. This man tried to murder my niece, he damned near murdered Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter, and is claiming to have _Imperiused_ children to murder each other. He's admitted as much. Do you really want to risk seeing him again?"

Shacklebolt dropped his eyes. "It's just too much like what happened to…"

"Don't say his name," Amelia snapped. "Don't even think it. Sirius was never questioned at all. He was just thrown into a dark corner to die. We know Snape is guilty from his own mouth. Take him to the DOM for further interrogation. The discussion is over."

With that she turned and marched out of the room. "Man, you need to remember that she's not Albus Dumbledore," Devon said.

"You're right," Shacklebolt said with some heat. "He'd never execute a prisoner."

"No, and he'd never win the war, either. And that's why Gawain Robards is head Auror, and not you. You're a good man, Shack, but right now we need fighters, and deep down you're a police officer."

Shacklebolt did not even try to disagree.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

_Harry woke up to a sensation of being ground between two massive stones, with weights pressing down on him so hard he felt as if everything inside his body was being squeezed out through his skull. In the midst of that pain, he heard a sibilant hiss that seemed to come from all around._

"_You failed, Harry," Voldemort said. "How can you possibly believe you are a match for me, when even one of my lesser lieutenants was able to beat you so badly?"_

_Despite the constant, grinding pain, Harry could not help but feel a spike of anger. "The question you should be asking yourself is, 'If he can fight so well against your lieutenants at fifteen, what will he be like at twenty?'"_

_He felt bubbling mirth from the Dark Lord's mind. "Oh, Harry. It is such a shame that fate and circumstance have made us enemies. I have to believe that we could have been such partners as to make the world tremble otherwise. Though I must kill you, I cannot help but have some admiration for your spirit. However, I do have one more question for you to ponder. What makes you think I will give you that much time?"_

_The grinding grew worse, providing a physical sensation to the fear Voldemort's words struck in Harry's chest. "I will keep fighting you," Harry vowed._

"_And you will die." Somehow, Voldemort managed to sound regretful—not sad, but as one might feel over the loss of a favored coffee cup or pet toad. "You cannot win, Harry. Even with all the Unspeakables in the United Kingdom, you cannot win."_

"_So what, should I just lie down and die, then?"_

"_Is that not what Dumbledore wanted for you, to be a sacrificial lamb? So that you can call on the magical world to forgive my followers after I die, since they did not know what it was they were doing? But you must understand, my young friend that I will not die. I will live for all time. Fighting against me just delays the inevitable."_

"_So, again, you think I should just lie down and die?"_

"_Yes," Voldemort said. The sibilant hiss seemed to echo and multiply, clawing at his mind. "If you value the lives of those you love, you will lie down and die. In ancient times, it was considered a sin to anger the gods. This was not because the gods would strike you down; in those days the fate of each man was his own to bear. No, the sin came about because the gods had bad aim. A man's hubris would invite the wrath of the gods against not just himself, but his whole city. I am a wrathful god, Harry Potter, and your life is a sin unto me. Continue to tempt my anger, and you may find everything around you destroyed as a result."_

"I think he's waking up!"

"_You were born to be the saviour, but like past saviours your method is not to live and fight, but to die in anguished sacrifice. It is your fate."_

"Harry, it's Ginny. Can you hear me?"

"_Remember my words, Harry Potter."_

"I love you, Harry."

The grinding pain eased only a little as Voldemort's presence faded. With effort, Harry opened his eyes to see the most… "Beautiful," he whispered aloud. Ginny was leaning over him, her face inches from his. Her breath smelled of…egg salad, actually, which made his stomach grumble loudly. The sound made Ginny smile so brightly he fought an urge to squint.

"I thought I lost you, Harry," Ginny whispered before she leaned down and kissed him gently. "Oh Merlin, I love you."

It dawned on Harry's still sluggish mind that this incredible, beautiful girl was telling him that she loved him, and suddenly he couldn't feel any pain at all, grinding or otherwise. All he could do was look at her with astonished, wide eyes. "I love you too," he said in a dry, cracked voice. "You're everything to me."

Her warm brown eyes took on a sheen of moisture as she gently laid her head on his chest and held his shoulders tightly. "You are my everything," she said into his body, as if speaking directly to his heart.

"Miss Weasley, I do need to examine him."

Ginny lifted off him, but then darted down for one more kiss before backing away to reveal not Madam Pomfrey, but a startlingly beautiful older woman with long, rich black hair wearing a rather familiar grey cloak, albeit without the hood. "Mr. Potter," she said with a luminous smile, "I am healer Raphaella Richardson with the Department of Mysteries. Due to the seriousness of your injuries, I have been assisting St. Mungo's and Madam Pomfrey. How do you feel?"

Now that the glow from Ginny faded a little, the grinding pain returned. "I feel like I'm being squeezed between boulders," he told her.

She nodded but never lost her smile. "Yes. The poison that Snape laced his knife with was particularly vicious, in that it attacked not just your magical core, but the physical production of magic itself—that is the marrow of your bones. Your magic was forced to fight against the poison until you went beyond magical exhaustion, in a sense hyper-extending your magic."

"So does that mean since I beat it I'm like super strong now, like in the funny books?"

Richardson laughed in delight. "No, you silly boy, it means your exhausted and out of magic. You almost burned yourself into a squib. That grinding sensation feels so deep because it is coming from the marrow of your very bones. Your body is working overtime to replenish your magical core."

"Oh." Harry couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

"But, if it makes you feel any better," Richardson added, "I suspect that when your core is restored, it will be at your fully realized adult strength."

"So I beat the poison?"

She did not laugh, but there was a strangely satisfied smile she sent to Ginny. "No, Harry. No one could beat the poison, not even Professor Dumbledore. The poison has already reached the marrow of his bones and has begun interfering with his magic. If not even he could beat it, then you could not either. No, your cure came in the form of true love."

"What's that mean?" Harry asked, looking from one woman to the next.

"I'll tell you later," Ginny promised.

"Well, for now, you rest," Richardson said. "I've instructed Poppy to keep you in bed for the rest of today, walking about the Hospital Wing tomorrow, and depending on that, possibly free the day after. Do not even think about using magic in the meantime."

"I won't, Healer Richardson," Harry promised.

"Good." She gave a satisfied nod before standing. "Now that you're away, I'd better tend to Ms. Lovegood."

Harry sat up in alarm. "Did she have another episode?"

"Not as badly as before, but yes," Richardson confirmed, losing some of her good humour. "However, I'm very proud to say that aside from loving you more than herself, young Miss Weasley was also able to effectively control and curtail Luna's episode. She is heavily sedated in her dorm room, but she will be fine once she knows you're awake."

"Good," Harry said with relief before sinking back down into the bed.

After Richardson was gone, he looked back to where Ginny sat, and without comment reached out to take her hand. "True love?"

"It was a special potion," Ginny said, before explaining everything that happened. When she was done, all Harry could do was stare.

"What?" Ginny asked.

"I just…I don't think anyone's ever loved me like that."

"Oh Harry," Ginny said with a smile and a roll over her eyes. "Sirius did. Your parents did. Hermione does. Ron would, if he were…you know, not Ron. I mean, in his own way he does. And my parents do, Harry, because they told me so. They told me in the tears I saw in their eyes when they came and sat with you over the past three days. We all love you."

"But you…"

She grinned before leaning down and kissing him. "Well, I do love you more than most, but a lot of people love you, so get used to it."

Looking into her eyes, Harry knew he could get used to it, though in the back of his mind a voice continued to whisper, _Remember my words…_

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The rest of the day passed in a blur of visitors. Hermione gave him a crushing hug and a kiss on his cheek, while Ron pretended to punch his shoulder. The two stayed the evening after dinner until curfew, promising to visit between classes. Ginny too had to go to class, though she returned between every one and skipped History entirely to stay by his side.

Nor were his "core" friends, as he thought of them, the only ones to visit. All his roommates came by, as Hermione's roommates, and then Ginny's as well. The one guest that surprised him, though, was Daphne Greengrass. She slipped in a few minutes before curfew and stood at the foot of his bed.

"They're going to kill me," she said in a dead-sounding voice. "They know."

"The Ministry will help you," Harry said.

She shook her head and reached up to wipe one eye. "They won't. My father's been screaming at them, but they won't. Snape lied and said he had Malfoy and the others under the _Imperius_ curse. Malfoy's getting off free, and he's going to come back here, and he's going to kill me."

Her certainty drove at him. "Then why don't you withdraw?"

"They'll follow," she said. "It happened to my Aunt Ophelia in the last war. She tried to escape to France, but they found her."

"I…we'll help you, Daphne," Harry said. "We'll get an Auror assigned to you. I promise we'll help."

She shook her head and ran from the room, leaving Harry in a dark, saddened mood.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Despite what Healer Richardson said, Madam Pomfrey insisted he spend two more nights in the Hospital Wing before leaving. So, well after curfew on his last night Harry was doing his catch-up homework by lamplight while across the room a Third Year Hufflepuff named Louise Middlebrook thrashed about with a case of dragon pox in her sleep.

He saw movement from the corner of his eyes and looked up in surprise to see Headmaster Dumbledore slowly enter the room. The man was not wearing his normally flamboyant wizarding robes, but instead wore a plain woollen bathrobe cinched tightly around his chest, striped pajama bottoms, and a bobbed sleeping cap. He moved with a slight shuffle to his feet and a hunch to his shoulders Harry had never seen in the man before—for the first time he could remember, Harry thought Dumbledore truly did look old.

The ancient wizard sat down on the bed next to Harry and looked over at Louise. "Dragon pox is a terrible illness, Harry. Arthur lost three brothers to it as a young man, and another three to war."

"Madam Pomfrey said there is a cure, though."

"A treatment, not a cure," the old wizard corrected. "A treatment, it should be noted, that was created by one Severus Snape as part of his master's test." Dumbledore looked down at his thin, clasped hands. "Severus is dead, so they tell me. Officially he tried to escape, but my sources tell me the escape attempt was made through the Veil of Death, and aided by two pairs of strong arms."

Harry let his book lay flat on his lap. "I know you must have cared for him, sir, but I just can't make myself feel sorry for him. My parents are dead because of him; I almost died because of him and you…"

"Me. Yes, well…yes." Dumbledore sighed, sounding uncharacteristically bitter. "I'm told I might have up to a year left, if I am lucky. It has left me time to dispose of my estate, which is all we can really ask in the end, after all—the chance to ensure our affairs are in order. But those affairs which concern me most, I cannot put in order."

Harry considered the headmaster for the longest time in mutual silence before he said, "When I was waking up, Voldemort spoke to me. He said you intended me to be a sacrifice, a lamb for slaughter. He was right, wasn't he?"

Dumbledore did not look Harry in the eye, but he nodded. "I knew you were a Horcrux, and so I knew in order for Tom Riddle to truly die, you would have to die as well. It was a bitter, terrible thought. I almost killed you when I first found you after that terrible day years ago, thinking that would solve the problem. It would have been so easy—after all, who could survive an attack by Voldemort as an infant? But of course I could not. Instead I did something even worse—I let a man whose innocence I at least suspected go to jail to ensure I could I could give you to Petunia, knowing full well what type of person she was. I condemned both of you to many long years of unhappiness because I…I had in my mind that you had to prepared for your fate. I needed you to feel such gratitude and love for the magical world that you would knowingly die for it."

At last the old man looked up and peered at Harry. "And though many things have changed, Harry, one fact has not. You carry a portion of Voldemort's soul in your scar, and while you live he cannot die. Even if you ran to the far ends of the Earth, he would be able to find you, and he would kill everyone around you until in the end you faced him just to save those you loved."

Harry couldn't believe his ears. "You're just like him. You want me to just lie down and die. He said I was guilty of hubris."

"Hubris? No, Harry. If anyone carries that sin, it is me. In my hubris, I thought I had the right to shape your life, I thought I had the right to control many lives. And instead _he_ poisoned me…." He stopped speaking for a moment, losing himself in reflection. Finally, he stood on shaking feet. "Though it is too little, and too late, I am terribly sorry for the pain I have caused you, Harry. I hope your friends at the DoM are able to find a solution to the Horcrux problem. I will contact Xeno to let him know that I will help how I can, while I can."

He started to shuffle away but paused at the foot of Harry's bed. "I understand Riddle has compared you to himself. There are many similarities, to be sure. But know this, Harry. Despite the similarities, there is one most profound difference. You attract and give love to a degree he could never imagine. The True Love's Kiss potion is near mythical, because it can so rarely be used. Whether I agree with what Xeno did to you and Ginny or not, not even I can argue with the power your love has given you. Remember that, the next time Tom tries to tell you that you are like him."

Hunched and shuffling, clutching his bathrobe about his frail body, the Headmaster left the Hospital wing just as slowly as he entered, leaving Harry to the low moans of the younger Hufflepuff across the way, and his equally turbulent thoughts.

* * *

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading!


	39. Not Like the Others

Chapter 38 review responses are available in my forums.

* * *

**Chapter Thirty-Nine: Not Like The Others**

On a Tuesday night during the second week of November, a week after Harry's release from the Hospital Wing, Harry settled onto the couch in the common room with Ginny, resting. They went through a light workout that evening with Luna, and though his magic seemed to be recovering very nicely, physically he tired quickly. He could feel little tremors in his thighs and a stitch in his ribs still, in addition to the constant pull from the mostly healed wound in his stomach. The skin felt tight there around a scar that, because of the poison, magic could not remove entirely.

Thinking about his many pains led him also to think of Ginny, who somehow was rubbing his ribs right where the stitch was, as if she knew exactly where it was. "You're doing better," she said. "You should be back up to full strength by the holiday."

"Thanks. I have a lot of encouragement—I never had so many kisses in my life." The work out was constantly interrupted by snogging sessions, and not just with Ginny, either. Luna seemed almost desperate to kiss him, pressing herself against him in ways that made his legs shake and his stomach quake. Ginny's kisses were comforting and right, and excited him too, but whereas hers set off a storm of happy emotions, Luna's just made him…well, randy.

Needless to say he'd been having some truly fascinating dreams at night, while he had no more visions from Voldemort to speak of. Nor were Harry and Ginny restrained to just snogging—for the first time he and Ginny were touching each other, and it was wonderful. She stopped him when he went too far, and while a part of him felt frustrated by it, another part felt relieved that at least one of them had some sense of restraint, because otherwise Luna would have had all three of them naked in bed already.

Considering how their Ravenclaw friend acted with the libido-inhibiting potion, not to mention another potion to calm her down following her latest incident, he feared what she would be like without the potions at all.

The fall-out from the attack was still settling in the press. Somehow, the Ministry managed to suppress most of Harry's involvement and managed to keep Ginny's name out entirely—probably Arthur's doing. The Daily Prophet was always a tool of the Ministry, and Amelia proved just as able in manipulating it as Fudge before her. Instead, the paper just mentioned that Harry Potter was injured during an attack on the castle. Surprisingly they also left out news of Dumbledore's poisoning, and the old wizard still showed up at evening meals in his robes, smiling and acting as if we were not slowly rotting from the marrow of his bones.

Despite that sobering news, it was a strangely exhilarating week for Harry. His and Ginny's mutual profession of love, and the seeming proof of it from the potion that saved Harry's life, made both teens look at their relationship with new eyes. He no longer felt awkward placing a hand on her waist, or even her hip. In fact, it was a struggle to keep from touching her all the time. Likewise, Ginny was always holding his arm, or touching his cheek, or running her hands through his hair; their touch drew comfort for each other. For Ginny this was not unusual—she came from a tactile family. For Harry, though, it was a revelation that simple, constant touch could be so wonderful.

It also made them think about what their relationship to Luna meant. It was obvious the small blonde felt intense physical attraction for them both, and Harry wasn't going to lie about feeling a physical attraction to her as well. She was so openly sensuous it was difficult not to respond in kind, and she had taken to wearing light clothes during their workouts that, after a few minutes of perspiration, clung to her in unmistakable ways. For instance, Harry knew beyond any possible doubt that Luna did not wear a bra during their training sessions.

What was worse, was that if he touched her in ways that Ginny would not allow, Luna would not only say yes, but she would then strip to make his touching easier, and do a lot more as well. That knowledge was as fascinating as it was problematic, and kept him up more than just one night knowing that this girl would give him anything he wanted. When they were younger, it was not really an issue, but at fifteen Harry was beginning to understand the possibilities such an arrangement could entail, and it was beginning to bother him in all sorts of ways.

Coming back to the present, Harry smiled when he heard Hermione congratulate Ron on his Potions essay. The two were sitting at another couch nearby, as close as he was to Ginny, with a book spread over their legs as they worked through Ron's homework. Ginny told him they had been doing that more this year—studying together. His new work ethic was, Ginny confessed, Ron's way of trying to make up for being a git to Hermione during their fourth year. Seeing the way her praise made Ron's cheeks flush, Harry suspected the change of behavior was paying dividends.

He was so relaxed he did not even turn around when he heard the door open. He felt a brush of familiar magic—the sensation of feeling of other people's magic was returning as his core restored itself—and without looking up, he said, "Good evening, Professor."

"Good evening, Mr. Potter," Professor McGonagall said from behind him. "I wonder if I could have some of your time. You as well, Ms. Weasley. Professor Dumbledore is waiting for you."

Harry couldn't help but groan as Ginny stood open and helped him up after. "Come on, Lazy Bones," she said with a smile.

"You okay, Harry?" Ron asked.

"Still sore, but a lot better," Harry assured his first friend. "Got a meeting with Professor Dumbledore, sounds like."

"Okay, see you later," Ron said. Beside him, Hermione smiled but looked speculative.

He and Ginny held hands and walked quietly behind Professor McGonagall through the familiar halls of the castle. "Tell me, Harry, did Ginny tell you it was me?" McGonagall said as they walked.

"No, I felt you coming," Harry said. "Your magic feels like…well, like cats, really."

In his mind's eye he could feel her speculative gaze. "What does my magic feel like, Harry?" Ginny asked.

"Sunshine and happiness," Harry said. "Hard to describe, but I'd know you anywhere."

They entered the Headmaster's tower and rode up the moving staircase until they entered the office itself. He entered with his right hand firmly in Ginny's.

They paused inside the door and looked at the gathered company in surprise. Much of the headmaster's floor was taken up by a heavy oak conference table. The headmaster sat at the far end, facing them; he looked haggard and exhausted, at that hour not even trying to maintain the illusion of health. To his right, sat Amelia Bones, and to her right, Arthur Weasley. Opposite them on Dumbledore's left sat Xenophilius Lovegood and Adonis. Next to Dumbledore sat a truly ancient witch who made Dumbledore look young.

Surprisingly, Luna was already there sitting on one end of a loveseat. She looked at them expectantly, her eyes drooping a little from her current potions regimen. "They said they wished to speak to us," she said. "Come, sit."

Harry and Ginny took the rest of the space on the loveseat, with Harry between the girls. He placed an arm around Luna's narrow shoulders as McGonagall took a seat by Arthur Weasley. "You doing okay?" he asked.

Luna smiled tiredly. "I feel quite heavy. I wonder if perhaps someone turned gravity up. It is possible, theoretically."

Beside him, Harry could feel Ginny frown. The blonde girl must have just taken her potion regimen before they sought her out. "I don't like her new potions," Harry said.

"It is necessary," Xenophilius said from the table, "but I do understand. I don't like them either."

"Well, introductions are in order, I believe," Dumbledore said in a passing semblance to his normal, sparkling voice. "Harry, Ginny, I'm sure you know everyone here, save our last guest, Madame Griselda Marchbanks. Madame Marchbanks is a Grand Dame of the Wizengamot, Governor and Chair of the Wizarding Examinations Authority, and, at least for two years before she left to assume her post at the WEA, my transfigurations professor."

"You are exceedingly old, Dame Marchbanks," Luna said as she stared at the old woman.

Marchbanks stared right back at her. "And from what I've heard, you're as mad as a hatter." Her voice was thin and reedy, but lively even so.

"Perhaps, but I am better now with potions, or so the voices in my head tell me."

"As good as we can hope, then," the ancient witch said with a dry cackle. "You'll do just fine in this room, dearie."

"Mr. Potter," Amelia began, "I have viewed Susan's memories of what happened during the assault on the castle. I…" She stopped and ground her teeth a moment. "Needless to say, we both owe you a debt that I doubt we could ever repay. But more importantly, you and your team demonstrated a level of combat readiness that I could not believe, despite assurances and testimony from those who knew. I was, honestly, left speechless at how effective you and Ginny were, with Luna as your support. But I was also worried—did you perform the purifying rituals after the fight?"

"We haven't had a chance yet," Harry said quickly.

Arthur cleared his throat, on the verge of choking. Dumbledore merely smiled sagely. "I think perhaps this time such a ritual will not be necessary."

"What do you mean?" Amelia asked. "They were both employing dark…"

"With Ms. Weasley's tears, we were successfully able to brew and administer the True Love's Kiss potion," Xenophilius said with a straight face. "The potion is better purification than even a Merlin Circle."

Bones stared at the teens. "How old are you, Ms. Weasley?" she finally asked.

"Fourteen, madam," Ginny said with a blush.

Harry, though, was examining all the faces at the table before nodding. "So all the cards are on the table?"

"Dumbledore came to us, Harry," Xenophilius explained. "He gave his own testimony under Veritaserum, as well as all his notes and memories regarding Voldemort. Griselda here was the Wizengamot liaison for the Department of Mysteries, and so knew already that I was Head Unspeakable. It was she and Minister Bagnold that first authorized the creation of the Pantheon Project, of which your parents were among our first and most successful trainees. Until you, that is."

"I have learned about your mission this summer," Marchbanks said. "Twenty children saved by the two of you. And yet you had just turned fifteen and fourteen respectively."

"Needless to say," McGonagall said after a brief silence, "there is little to no point in pretending any of you are ordinary students. Rumour is already running rampant through not just Hufflepuff, but the whole school, about your actions that night, Harry, and yours as well, Ginevra. While we've not released details, the students know that Death Eaters breached the castle, Professor Sprout was severely injured, and somehow you three stopped them and saved Ms. Bones."

"The students also know that Professor Snape was been arrested," Dumbledore said.

"So was he ever your man?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Dumbledore said, "I believe he was, at least until he managed to reconstruct the memories that Unspeakable Adonis there obliviated during your third year. The act of reconstructing those memories also led him to firmly believe it was Miss Lovegood that attacked him prior to that, and it was those actions that drove him firmly into Voldemort's lap."

"Are you blaming us?" Harry asked.

"No, Harry," Dumbledore said gently. "I blame myself for not stepping in to stop your obvious conflict before it came to that point—for exacerbating it, even. Ultimately, though, Severus was the adult and the teacher. Whatever drove him to Voldemort, his actions were still his own. I cannot express my disappointment in a man I sincerely thought was my dearest friend, but I can no longer defend his actions. He has done me as great a harm as you."

"So what happens next?" Ginny asked.

"Next," Marchbanks said, "we are going to administer your NEWT examinations for Transfiguration, Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts. Additionally for you, Ms. Lovegood, we are going to administer NEWT examinations for Arithmancy and Runes."

Luna smiled wanly, while leaning her shoulder against harry. "That should be quite entertaining. You owe me twenty galleons, Adonis."

Adonis grimaced. "Damn, forgot about that. You haven't passed yet, though."

Luna merely stared at him, until he said, "Fine."

"Should I even ask?" Marchbanks asked.

"She made a bet with me, Madame," Adonis said, "that she would have her NEWTsin Arithmancy before she was fifteen. She based the bet on an arithmantic projection she ran when she was ten."

Marchbanks chuckled. "Mad as a Hatter indeed."

"And then what?" Harry asked.

"And then, my boy," Dumbledore said, "we shall drop all pretence of you being like the other students. You shall attend those core and required classes that you do not test out of, but for those classes where you achieve an NEWT score, you shall be allowed to train as your superiors require. You will remain students, of course, but with special dispensation from myself, and Professor McGonagall as my successor here, plus the Ministry of Magic, to use magic as an adult and as a provisional member of the DMLE and DOM, and to leave Hogwarts as your duty requires. Those of us in this room will be the only ones fully aware of your status with the Ministry. Do you have any questions?"

Harry looked down at his hands—Luna held his left, while Ginny clung to his right. "Just one, Professor. Are you done trying to make my life miserable?"

Dumbledore sighed, but it was not a sound of impatience. Rather, it was the sound of exhaustion and regret. "Yes, Harry. I realize that the plans I enacted have failed. Your fate is in your own hands, now. I will help you in any way I can, but I will no longer try to tell you how to live your life."

"Then I think we're done here," Harry said.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The next morning was a Saturday, which meant when Harry and Ginny made their way down to a late breakfast in the hopes of avoiding the crowds, they were profoundly disappointed. Most of the other students had the same exact idea, and so hundreds of eyes watched Harry and Ginny intently as they stepped in to eat their breakfast.

"Do you think they know about us? The potion, I mean?" Harry asked.

"Harry, we fought off a Death Eater incursion and you personally duelled and came close to beating Snape," Ginny said, somehow without moving her lips. "I think that's why they're staring."

"Oh, yeah."

Turning to him, Ginny added, "But even if they did know, I wouldn't care. I love you."

"Love you too," he said softly.

As Ron and Hermione arrived, bickering good-naturedly while preparing their plates, Harry saw Pomona Sprout walking gingerly up to the head table with Madam Pomfrey hovering by her side. It was the first time he'd seen the Hufflepuff Head of House since the attack, given her prolonged stay at St. Mungo's.

"Give me a sec?" Harry said to Ginny. She followed his gaze to Sprout and nodded, smiling.

Harry left the table and made a straight line to the head of Hufflepuff. "Professor Sprout?" he said when he arrived at the head table.

She looked at him, obviously uncomfortable because of her injuries, but then smiled and grew misty eyed. "Potter," she said. "Harry. Come up around here, my boy. I need to say something, and I'm not quite up to running around yet."

"Yes, Professor." He stepped up onto the platform and came around, only to be grabbed and pulled into a surprisingly strong hug.

"I got a note from Susan this morning," the head Hufflepuff said. "You saved her, my dear boy. You and those remarkable girls of yours, you saved her. After losing Cedric last year, the thought of losing another of my favourites…well, I'd rather that horrible curse take me first. Thank you so much." The older woman was crying outright, and the outpouring of emotion made Harry's own eyes water.

He looked the woman in the eyes and said, "Cedric was a great person. I know this wasn't in the news, Professor, and I need you to keep it that way, but I promise you that the one who killed him won't ever do anything like that again."

She looked startled a moment, her lips pursed and eyes pensive, but after a moment she gave a firm nod. "Good," she said. "That's good to know, Harry, that Hogwarts has a champion like you. If you ever need anything of me, anything at all, know that all you need to do is ask."

"Thank you, Professor. I hope you get better soon."

"She will, Potter, I'll see to it," Pomfrey said.

He couldn't help but grin. "Then it's a sure thing. I'll see you in class, Professor."

She clutched at his hand, squeezing it once before letting him leave. As he did so, he saw the whole of Hufflepuff watching him with wide eyes frought with emotion. The sight of their Head of House hugging him carried a lot of weight with the house of the loyal. He smiled weakly at them before returning to his own table. It was going to be a long day.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests were in fact just as nasty and exhausting as their names implied. The three students—one fifth and two fourth years—sat together for the theory portion of their transfiguration examinations for three continuous hours. When that was done they then spent the entire fourth hour on the practical examination. By the time they were done, they felt as if they had just run through the worst of Adonis's drills.

And they had two more tests to go, while Luna had four!

They dragged themselves into the great hall for lunch and all sat together in a small pocket, revising for the Charms test that afternoon. Hermione and Ron sat with them, as did Neville and the usual gang. Susan had not returned to school just yet and likely would not until the following term.

Hermione was torn between reading her own texts and those her friends were studying. Finally, she couldn't help it and said, "Are those NEWT study guides?"

"Yeah," Harry said. He looked up from the book and rubbed his eyes. "We're taking our Charms NEWT this afternoon."

Harry supposed he should have whispered or spoken softly, because a wave of silence passed down the length of the table at these words.

Hermione looked hurt. "All of you?"

"Yes," Luna said. "We took our Transfiguration test this morning. It was quite challenging, really. I understand why seventh years often walk around in a state of panic. Fortunately I am on a very powerful psychoactive potion, otherwise I might be nervous."

"How … blimey...! Never mind," Ron said.

"But Ginny, you're just a fourth year," Hermione said, looking as if she were about to cry.

"We're only testing in Charms, Transfiguration and DADA," Harry said, understanding his old friend's sense of betrayal. "Those are the areas our training concentrated on, Hermione. We'll still go to Potions, and Ginny and I will still go to Runes and Arithmancy. I doubt I'll ever excel at those like you. But this way I'll be able to do Hagrid's class and Herbology as well. We'll still be students, Hermione. We'll still be here, and we'll still need your help in Potions and Arithmancy."

"Any word yet on who is going to teach DADA?" Neville asked.

"They've brought in an Auror named Proudfoot," Ginny said. She and Harry knew that Proudfoot was on long-term leave from the DMLE for allowing himself to fall to the Imperius curse. The DADA position was a chance for him to work through his issues, since according to Susan's aunt, the man was a good Auror and deserved a second chance.

Hermione though still looked like she was going to cry. Harry looked at Ron and then pointedly nodded to Hermione. For once, the tall boy got the hint and gently put an arm around her shoulder. "You'll still be able to boss me around on my homework," he said.

"Me too, I'm helpless in half my classes," Neville said helpfully.

Hermione cracked a teary smile. "I'm so pathetic."

"You're brilliant," Ron said. "Ruddy brilliant, and don't you forget it."

She looked up at him and said, "Thank you, Ron." She kissed his cheek before gathering her things and leaving.

"He is improving, isn't he?" Luna said.

"He really is," Ginny agreed.

Ron just grinned at them.

The Charms exams actually went easier for Harry than Transfiguration, since as Flitwick said he had a natural leaning in that area. He knew Ginny struggled, and had absolutely no idea about Luna since she looked the exact same whether she was struggling or getting it in one.

The next day they took their DADA exam and left Marchbanks speechless.

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading!


	40. Ending the Term

Chapter 39 Review Responses are available in my forums. Thank you.

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**Chapter Forty: Ending the Term**

"Hey, Dell, see that bloke over there?" The speaker's name was Clara Bratton, age thirty-one. Her companion, Dell Sanderson, aged forty, stood in line next to her for a basket of fish and chips from a street vendor. He looked up at where she motioned with her chin just for a second before looking away again.

"Yeah. Acromantula silk, you think?"

"Bet a Galleon it is," Clara said.

The two operated a newspaper stand across the street from a successful dentistry clinic in London, though they had only been in business for the past month. The man they were looking at was lounging indolently on a bench perhaps twenty feet away on their side of the street, and was also looking at the building.

"He on the list?" Dell asked.

Clara removed what looked like a small journal that opened to show a series of photos. She flipped through them quickly until she came to one toward the end. "Snick," she said. "Petri Snick."

"Petri?" he said. "Definitely pureblood. No Muggleborn would name their kid that."

"You would know," Clara said. "Do we move now?"

"I don't think so, but we definitely need to call it in and see if any other targets have been scouted."

"Right."

The call came in on a telephone, which the Ministry was only recently equipped to receive due to renovations spearheaded by the new minister. The call was routed immediately to Head Auror Gawain Robards, who ordered the agents to maintain surveillance. He told them this was the only sighting, just like he'd told the agents watching the Granger home that theirs was the only sighting, and the agents in Ottery St. Catchpole that theirs was the only sighting. And when the call was done, he summarized a report to his boss, Devon Williamson, that so far no Death Eaters had been sighted at any of the known target locations.

Gawain Robards was not a Death Eater yet, he was simply greedy, and the Dark Lord paid well.

Unfortunately for Robards, with the new phone lines came new wire taps installed courtesy of Her Majesty's Security Service, known publicly as MI5, routing all incoming calls to an analyst within the Department of Mysteries, who wrote a much more detailed report than Robards did.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

It seemed odd, given everything that happened, to worry about Quidditch. But nonetheless, Harry did so. The season opener versus Slytherin was frankly a letdown. After Harry's performance in Snape's DADA class and then his brutal take down of Malfoy, the snakes were sufficiently cowed that they did not resort to their normal brutish approach to play, with the result that Gryffindor slaughtered them.

In contrast, Ravenclaw, their next appoint, fielded a very good team under the leadership of Captain Cho Chang. On top of that, the forecast was absolutely horrid, with sleet, snow and freezing rain expected. Despite Luna's assurances that Gryffindor would win, Harry could not feel that confident. He was excited, certainly, but not confident.

It took a great deal of snogging for him to feel better about their changes. "Merlin, you two, can't you get enough?" Angelina said. "You're making your brothers feel inadequate."

Behind her, the Weasley twins shook their heads, pantomiming that their team captain was lying. "Sorry, Captain," Ginny said. "Just trying to raise morale and all."

"Raise it somewhere other than Harry's face," Angelina said, though she looked as if she were fighting a smirk. "Alright, let's head out!"

The game was just as brutal as Harry feared. Ginny's work with the chasers, using Ron's play list, was just enough to keep them even with a vastly improved Ravenclaw team. However, within ten minutes not even warming charms were enough to keep the icy wind out of their robes. However, the strangest thing happened while they played—the feeling Harry had of other people's magic grew more pronounced, until he could feel where every player on the field was even with his eyes closed.

Moreover, he could feel the magic in the brooms as well and…the Snitch! He could _feel_ it even if he couldn't actually see it. Thirty minutes into the game, he realized he could pinpoint exactly where it was despite having no visibility at all. While a corner of his mind nagged at him over the long term consequences of this fact, the short term side of his brain reminded him that his 'nads were very close to freezing off entirely, and that no one wanted to be out in this atrocious weather.

He caught the Snitch easily, honing in on the flighty, golden feel of its magic, and then had to fly down to Madam Hooch to show her the Snitch since the weather was so foul she would never have seen it otherwise.

Despite losing, not even the Ravenclaws were really sad about leaving the pitch.

After the game, though, Harry felt anything but happy. The others celebrated, once they had feeling in their extremities, but Harry only smiled along. After he was dressed, Ginny came and sat down next to him on the changing room bench. "What's wrong?"

Harry glanced down at his hand, remembering the feel of the Snitch. "We need to talk to Professor McGonagall tonight," he said.

"Why?"

"I…I don't think I should play anymore," he admitted in a low voice. "It felt like I was cheating out there."

"What do you mean?" Ginny asked, horrified by the idea of him not playing.

With a glance around to make sure no one else was near, he leaned forward and said, "Ginny, I knew _exactly_ where the Snitch was. I could feel it. I could feel all the players, and the magic in the brooms. I could have played with my eyes closed and still won. The only reason the game took as long as it did was because it took me that long to figure out what I was feeling—it didn't happen in the last game. It just isn't fair. But everyone is going to be so disappointed in me."

Ginny took his hand in hers, leaned over and kissed his cheek. "We'll be disappointed, but not in you, Harry. We'll lose the best Seeker to ever play here at Hogwarts. But I promise Professor McGonagall will not be upset with you personally. You'll see."

In fact, Professor McGonagall listened to them with an unreadable expression in her office the next morning, sipping a cup of hot tea while the wind howled outside her window. Finally, she set her tea down and said, "Did you know, Harry that in his youth Professor Dumbledore also played seeker for Gryffindor? It was remarked by his classmates that, while he was never the best flyer, he always managed to find and capture the Golden Snitch first. He started playing his fifth year, and for the three years he played, he never lost a game."

"Of course not," Harry snorted, "he was cheating."

A corner of McGonagall's lip turned up in a wry smile. "Mr. Potter, one hundred points to Gryffindor for truly astonishing honesty, responsibility and courage. I agree with you that it is not appropriate for you to continue to play, given your inherent abilities. Who would you suggest as your replacement?"

"Ginny, of course," Harry said. "She's the best flier on the team, and she can use my broom while she's at it. Colin is on the team as a back-up chaser so she won't leave too large of a gap."

McGonagall nodded. "While this was certainly not the conversation I envisioned having with you today, Harry, I did have news for the two of you." She opened a drawer on her desk and removed two unmarked envelopes. "Your scores."

With a look at each other, Harry and Ginny opened the envelopes before sagging in relief. "You did better in Transfiguration," Harry noted.

"You did better in Charms," Ginny said, grinning.

"You both did astoundingly well, given your ages," McGonagall said. "I have never been more proud of my students than I am of the two of you. While events earlier this term were regrettable, I have no doubts that you both acted with courage and honour. You are a credit to your house, both of you."

"Thank you," Harry said, surprised that he choked up a little at the praise.

As they were walking back to the common room, they were stopped by Luna. She still had a slight glazed look in her eye form her potion, but not as bad as when freshly administered. "I received communication from Adonis. Please get Hermione and bring her to the Headmaster's suite. Bring her under your cloak, Harry. No one can see her."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Hermione looked positively sick with worry as Harry and Ginny walked with her to the Headmaster's office hidden under Harry's invisibility cloak. When they arrived, she was surprised to see Adonis there, but no sign of the Headmaster himself.

"Where is the Professor?" Harry asked.

"Receiving a treatment at St. Mungo's," Adonis said. "His condition is quite painful, and unfortunately beyond Poppy Pomfrey's abilities to treat. Hermione, how are you tonight?"

"Worried,"

"Unfortunately, with reason," the handsome Unspeakable said. "However, with every danger comes opportunity, and that's why I wanted to speak with you tonight.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Arthur Weasley walked quickly through the halls of the Ministry head down as if in deep thought, during the week before the winter holiday. Some of the ministry workers watched him as he went; wondering what went through his mind. In the new Ministry, Arthur Weasley was becoming very popular because of his humble, yet determined approach. He was a pureblood wizard of unquestionable pedigree, though the Weasley family was never a rich one, but he was sympathetic to Muggles and Muggleborn. He also had the honor of fathering six sons and a daughter, which to the outside world might not have meant much, but to a world that was looking at drastically reduced populations due to war, was something of an achievement.

Arthur, for his part, was thinking about what Molly was making for dinner, and at why electric plugs had two prongs sometimes, and three prongs other times. He was also wondering how he managed to go from a minor sub department head to Senior Undersecretary of Magic so quickly.

He only looked up when he passed through the doors to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The Hit Wizard on duty behind the desk smiled with honest warmth. "Mr. Weasley, what can we do for you?"

"Yes, is Gawain in?"

The Hit Wizard, a young man just out of training, checked a rune stone on his desk before nodding. "He says to go right in, sir."

He found the newly promoted head Auror in his desk surreptitiously looking over a report of something or another. Gawain's desk was surprisingly clean, and his walls clear of portraits or certificates. "Arthur!" the man said gaily. "What can I do for you?"

"Bit of work, actually. As you may know, my kids are good friends with a Muggleborn girl named Hermione Granger. I believe we have her parents under surveillance because she is also good friends with Mr. Potter. I just received word that Ms. Granger will be leaving school to meet with her parents at their holiday home in Cardiff when school closes for the winter. Specifically, they are going to be driving directly from King's Cross to the coast." He handed the other man a slip of parchment. "Here is their address. The home has no wards, so we need a team of at least five Aurors on guard stations around the home for the duration of the visit. We think she might be at risk because of her relationship with Harry Potter."

"I'll take care of it," Gawain said with a confident smile.

"I know you will. Thank you, Gawain."

Arthur left the office; once more thinking about what Molly was cooking for dinner, and also about just how many Sickles a Muggleborn's life was worth to a man like Gawain Robards. He then wondered if Shacklebolt would make a better Head Auror despite being Dumbledore's tool.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Though Harry never actually had to attend any of the man's classes due to his NEWT score, he heard that Auror Daniel Proudfoot had proven himself a qualified teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Unfortunately, he was also something of a hard case regarding Neville.

Neville would never admit to it himself, of course, but Hermione and Ron both said the new professor badgered Neville constantly, almost as badly as Snape used to. Despite that, Harry still needed to speak to the man because of a constant, nagging worry he had felt since he woke up from Snape's poisoning. And being the last week before the end of term, he figured this was as good a time as any.

The former Auror appeared short and stocky, but not fat. Rather, he carried himself like a ball of potential violence—controlled movements that spoke of rage beneath them. When Harry entered his classroom, the man moved with a perpetual frown on his face as he stacked up essays to be graded.

He did not even look up when he said, "Harry Potter. What an honour." The sarcasm was heavy enough to make Harry actually stop several feel sooner than he intended.

"Good afternoon, Professor Proudfoot," Harry said in as neutral a tone as he could muster, given such a greeting. "I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time."

"Why?" Proudfoot said shortly. "I'm told you have passed your NEWT in DADA, a prodigy at age fifteen. So what can lowly little me do for you?"

Harry cocked his head to one side, trying his best to figure out what he had done to mortally offend this man. "Are you related to Professor Snape, sir?"

Proudfoot looked up, dark eyes narrowing. "What?"

"You're acting just like Severus Snape, so I'm wondering if you're related."

The controls snapped, and in the blink of an eye Proudfoot exploded into violence, vaulting over his desk to attack Harry. The man did not punch or kick with magic—he had no need to. He was strong enough physically to do plenty of damage without magic, and though he did not employ any magical martial art, he apparently knew Muggle fighting techniques.

Harry backed away and did his best to employ a passive defense; he avoided the punches and kicks when he could, and slap-blocked them to guide them away when he couldn't. At no point did he attempt to meet strength with strength, since he knew he was vastly outclassed without using magic, while using magic would escalate the fight to a level he was not prepared to take.

Unfortunately, despite three years of incredibly intensive training and enough magical power to make even Voldemort notice, Harry found himself outclassed by a vastly superior opponent. Proudfoot was breathtakingly fast, and on at least four occasions in the first thirty seconds of their fight landed hard, painful blows. Harry doubted even Krum could have outfought the man in straight hand-to-hand combat.

After less than two minutes of fighting, Harry found his feet swept and his back on the floor, while his jaw throbbed and his stomach clenched under a powerful blow that left him gasping for air.

Proudfoot stood over him, not even breathing hard. "Not bad for a kid," he said, all hint of violence gone from his face. "I recognized some of those moves—Unspeakable training."

"Yes, sir," Harry said after he was able to breathe again. He slowly sat up and regained his feet. "Feel better, sir?"

"Gods you're an arrogant prick, aren't you?" Proudfoot snapped. "Typical Unspeakable mindset. A little training and killing children doesn't make you a badass, Potter!"

"But beating up children does?"

"You're no child and you know it, Potter," the former Auror snapped. "I hold a ninth degree black belt in Karate and five tournament championships to my name—you were able to hold me off for almost one hundred and twenty seconds at full press. Nobody else in this castle would've lasted past my first strike. And you notice I didn't bother with magic?"

"I noticed," Harry said, fighting to control his temper.

Proudfoot walked back to his stack of essays. "I'm a bloody poor teacher, Potter. I didn't join the Ministry to babysit snot-nosed brats. I joined to catch dark wizards."

Harry said nothing—rather he spent the time wordlessly casting healing charms from the brief but very painful fight. "Is that why you're so hard on Neville?"

Proudfoot stopped, surprised. "Is that why you're here, for that Nancy boy? Frank Longbottom once took a cutting curse to the shoulder that damned-near cut his fucking arm off. Know what the bastard said? 'Shite that stings!' Just like that. He caught the bastard that cursed him and only then had his arm fixed. Alice was just as hard as he was. I don't see any of that in their boy."

Harry did not bother to hide his anger. "Kind of hard to see them in their boy when they haven't talked to him since he was a baby," he said, struggling to keep his voice even. "That's like saying I should be treated like shite because I don't act like my dad."

Proudfoot frowned but said nothing. "What is it you want, Potter?"

"I had an idea for a DADA study group. I wanted to ask if you'd sponsor it."

The former Auror stopped in his tracks, truly surprised for the first time since Harry arrived. "A study club? What the hell for?"

"Because Voldemort said he would be going after my friends if I didn't just lie down and die," Harry said with brutal honesty. "I can't just quit fighting, but I…I can't stand the idea of my friends dying either. If I can get them some extra training, it might make the difference if they are attacked."

"And I'm assuming you want Neville in this club?"

"Neville is a good chap," Harry said. "He's never had a chance. He told me once that his family used to try and kill him to make sure he was magic, and I've heard his grandmother talk to him like he was dirt. I grew up with people that hated me too—it's a bit of a challenge to be an Auror's dream child when you're brought up to believe you're nothing but shite."

"And what do your superiors say?" Proudfoot said, demonstrating he knew very well Harry was not completely free to do what he wanted.

"This isn't a DoM matter," Harry said, raising his chin. "This is a student affair. That's why I'm asking a professor to help with the club. I'm sure Hermione would help with study plans, but the way you fight…it would be really nice if my friends could defend themselves in a serious fight."

Proudfoot crossed the classroom and sat back down behind his desk. "Word on the street is you're the Chosen One, Potter. That you're the only one who can kill Voldemort."

"As far as I know," Harry said. "But nothing ever said I have to do it alone. I've learned just how important getting help is. I need help now. I know I can't defend my friends and fight Voldemort at the same time. So I need to do what I can to make sure they can defend themselves."

The former Auror placed his stack of essays in an old leather satchel. "Fine. I'll pass it by the headmaster, and if he agrees, I'll sponsor your club."

"Thank you, sir," Harry said with a sigh of relief.

"One more thing."

"Sir?"

"Next term, I expect you to be here every Saturday morning at 10. Your blocking was good enough, but that kick you threw was pants. You can do better."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, Professor."

"Now get out."

"Yes, Professor."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

On the second to last day of term, Ron found Harry, Ginny and Luna in the Room of Requirement, finishing their training for the evening. The fact he was able to find them at all was mute testament to the position he had in their group. The fact that even after several years watching them train left him at once in awe, jealous and faintly afraid seemed to be par for the course.

They finished after a bout of acrobatic spell casting at moving targets around the room and broke up for water and towels to wipe away sweat. "Hey, Ron," Harry said. "What's going on?"

"I was wondering… I mean, I just…" Ron looked down at his hands as he twiddled his thumbs. "How do I ask Hermione out on a date? I've been trying since school started, and the words just get all tangled up. I need help."

Ginny turned and stared for a moment, caught by surprise by his admission, before she gave her surprised brother a hug. "You git," she said with a happy laugh. "If you can't say the words to her face, then write them down and send her a letter. I'll even look it over for you if you want. That way you can make sure you say exactly what you want to say, and I can make sure you don't bollocks it up. Trust me, girls absolutely adore love letters."

Like a light going off in a dark room, Ron's smile exploded onto his face. "Brilliant!"

Harry stared at Ginny. "Do they really?"

Ginny rolled her eyes.

"Well," Luna said, "do they?"

That evening, Hermione sighed as she finished up her last Transfiguration essay which was due the next day. She tried to get Ron to join her, but he surprised her by showing he'd already done it. He truly was taking his studies a lot more seriously this term. Harry and Ginny weren't even taking the class any more, and so she found herself doing the essay alone. It reminded her too much of her first years of primary school, where she was constantly alone.

"You're just being a moody git," she whispered to herself as she started putting her books away.

She was about done when a charmed paper airplane, much like those used in the ministry, slid onto the table right to her fingertips. She looked up to see who threw it, but saw no one in her vicinity except for Madam Pince. Mindful of the limited training she had received with Ron from the Department of Mysteries, she passed her wand over the paper to check for any dark magic or portkeys.

Confirming it was safe she opened up the parchment and started to read.

_Dear Hermione,_

_I'm writing this because I'm afraid that if I try to say it to you, I'll bollocks it up like I normally do, and this is one time I do not want to bollocks anything up. _

_Five years ago, I made you cry and run straight into a troll. It was only because of Harry that I went to help save you. That was because of how terrible I felt for being mean to you in the first place. But then you lied to protect us both, and I realized then that you could be a great friend. _

_All the times I complained about you being bossy, a part of me knew that you being bossy was exactly what I needed. I can honestly say I would not have passed any of my classes without you. _

_I didn't realize how much you meant to me until our second year, but it seemed like you liked Harry much more than me, so I decided I would just be your friend. But then Harry met Ginny, and we know what happened. I watched you get hurt that year, and the next. And I wanted to let you know you still had me. But I didn't, because I knew I would bollocks it up._

_Then came fourth year, the year I realized how beautiful you were. I always knew you were pretty, but that year was the first year I realized that you were beautiful. And yet I still managed to hurt you because words just don't come right to me._

_So now, I'm writing you this letter because even though the words don't come out right when I'm around you, when I'm alone you are all I can think about. I think you are brilliant, beautiful, kind and wonderful, Hermione. You are the greatest person I know, and I want to make sure that you know that too. _

_I know we don't have many Hogsmeade weekends this year, but the next one we have, it would be my greatest honour if you would come with me as my girlfriend. When I think about the good times I've had in my life, almost all of them involve you, and if you will have me, I would like to have many more with you. _

_I'm sorry for not saying this to you in person. Ginny was right, though. It is much easier to write this out than to say it. But it's still just as true. Please say yes._

_With all my love,_

_Your personal, dedicated git,_

_Ron _

Hermione carefully folded the letter up and placed it in her bag, and then wiped her eyes of the tears that were running down her cheeks. Ron had written her a genuine love letter, the first she had ever received in her life.

Through her tears, she saw him sit down at the table, his face serious and pensive. He did not say a word as he looked at her, but she could see everything in the letter written plainly in his face. This was Ron, with his heart on his sleeve. He would never lie to her, because he couldn't lie to save his life. He would almost certainly hurt her, but never intentionally, and he would always come back to try and make it right once he finally realized what he did wrong. He would never be as smart as she was, nor as successful, likely. And yet, thinking of the letter and all the good times she had over the past five years, it came as a shock that they involved Ron far more than Harry. Ron made her laugh, even if she was laughing at him instead of with him. And he did not care if she was, so long as she laughed and actually took a break from her studies long enough to enjoy herself.

She realized then that if not for Ron, more than Harry, she would have been terribly unhappy. As sad as she was that she lost Harry as her primary friend, she suspected that Luna was right all those years ago—that Harry was better off with Ginny, because she could control his temper and still let him have fun. Hermione didn't know how to have fun on her own—not without Ron.

She reached across the table and took his hand in hers. "For all intents and purposes," she said in a voice thick with emotion, "I already am your girlfriend. It was a lovely letter, Ron, and I would be happy to go with you any time."

His smile lit the world and made Hermione's heart skip a beat. "Brilliant," he said, choked up himself a little. "Could I…could I kiss you, Hermione?"

She could not help but arch a brow. "I might allow it."

He stood, and she found herself doing the same, and they came together over the table in a chaste, yet still emotionally intense kiss. They parted and she saw Ron's cheeks burning red. "I'll get better," he promised.

"I know," she said. "All it will take is practice."

"Brilliant," he said again.

"Brilliant," she agreed, beaming. For that one moment, she thought only of this wonderful boy in front of her, and not what would be happening the following week.

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading!


	41. The Giant Killers

Chapter 39 Review Responses are available in my forums.

* * *

**Chapter Forty-One: The Giant Killers**

They rode the train together—Hermione and Ron did their rounds as prefects, while Harry and Ginny went from cabin to cabin, visiting his friends or hers. He told Neville about the DADA club and made sure to invite him, plus any others he thought would want to come.

They remained visible, traversing the whole train at least twice to ensure everyone could see them. Eventually they settled back in their cabin with Luna, joined moments later by Ron and an increasingly nervous Hermione.

Ron didn't say anything, but after an hour of her fidgeting, he finally took her hand and said, "It's going to be okay."

Hermione smiled at him, blushing a little as she did, and said, "I know. I'm just nervous, I suppose. And not just for my parents."

"It's supposed to be a milk run," Harry said. "They wouldn't let us on the team if it weren't. Zeus thought this would be a good live fire mission for us, though, and we agreed."

They arrived at the station that evening. Gathering their trunks, the friends queued with the rest of the students to leave the train, emerging onto a platform crowded not just with parents, but also Aurors made highly visible by their crimson robes. Mr. Weasley was there in person, flanked by four Aurors dedicated just to his personal safety.

Beside him stood Hermione's parents, Edwin and Calliope Granger, both of whom looked alert and nervous, mirroring Hermione's own concern. It took an act of will not to run crying to them both. Instead, she walked calmly with Ron, Harry and Ginny to meet them.

"Hello, Mum, Dad," she said, hugging both tightly.

"Hello, dear," Calliope said. "We have a wonderful holiday on the coast planned. We've already packed for you."

If Calliope sounded fake, Hermione was willing to excuse it given what she learned just days ago. "I can't wait," she said, forcing a smile.

"Well, it was a pleasure seeing you both again," Arthur said, shaking the Muggle couple's hands. "Auror Shacklebolt here will be glad to escort you to your car."

"Is that necessary?" Edwin asked.

Even to Hermione's ears, it sounded rehearsed.

"Just a precaution," Shacklebolt said with an easy smile. "I understand you had to park some ways away."

Hermione hugged Ron, then Harry and Ginny together. "Be safe," she whispered to them.

"We will," Harry promised.

As Harry, Ginny, Ron and Arthur Flooed home directly from the station, Shacklebolt escorted the Grangers out of the station and the five blocks to find their car. Though he continued smiling pleasantly, he said, "There is a Portkey inside the car," he said softly. "When you get in, please all three grab the soda can. Hermione, touch your wand to it and say 'Safety'. As soon as you're gone, your Polyjuiced replacements will come and drive the car to the cottage. Do you have any questions?"

"No," Edwin said.

"The Portkey's going to be awful, Mum, just to warn you," Hermione said.

"Better discomfort that dismemberment," Edwin muttered.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Later that night, Harry Potter found himself shivering despite the warming charms of his bespelled Unspeakable Cloak while slowly drifting on a broom through a copse of trees a mile from the cliffs south of Cardiff.

He could feel Ginny's magic nearby—he always knew where she was, and he felt sure she could pinpoint him as well—though he could not see her. The two of them were powerfully disillusioned, along with twelve more Unspeakables and six senior, hand-picked Aurors. The Aurors also wore Unspeakable robes for this mission, mainly for the Protean-charm on the cowls that allowed instantaneous communication much like Muggle radios, while at the same time protecting their identities.

Three hundred yards away, he could see a quaint stone cottage on the edge of the cliffs overlooking the Bristol Channel. In the twilight, the setting looked like a beautifully rendered painting, or a postcard picture. A gentle tendril of smoke rose from the cottage's chimney, while happy lights shone from inside. He could see the silhouettes of people moving about. There was no snow, but ice from ocean spray made the cliffs white and treacherous.

The happy, gentle Christmas scene broke in half when a ring of ten black-cloaked figures popped into existence around the front of the building. Luna's voice, made older and androgynous through the masking of the cowls, reported, "Targets sighted. Count ten. Confirm."

Adonis, leading the mission personally, said, "Confirmed." Like Luna, Harry could only tell it was him through intonation and long experience with the man.

The briefing for the mission lasted for five straight hours in the offices of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement on the first day of what was supposed to be their holiday. The only thing that kept either teen from feeling upset over it was the fact that the mission was to protect Hermione and her family. Throughout the briefing Adonis stressed that they were to take no action until the Death Eaters entered the cabin. Despite that Harry still found it hard to watch as the black-clad bastards blasted the door open and ran inside.

"This is Control," came Luna's disguised voice through the cowl's charm. "Mission parameters, optimal. Wards are up; mission is a go."

Harry zoomed forward, counting on his Unspeakable Cloak to warn him if he got too close to his comrades. Rather than fly directly to the cabin, they stopped fifty yards away and landed before quickly falling to their stomachs. He felt someone crawl up beside him and knew instinctively that it was Ginny.

"Snorckack Hunter, you are clear," Luna said.

"Damned right I am," replied a harsh voice that even with the cloak's charms sounded rough hewn. "All right, Laddies, let's show the good people here what a snorkack can do."

The disillusionment charms ended for ten of their number, and each of these specially trained Unspeakables wielded Russian-built RPG-29 Antitank grenade launchers equipped with PG-29v rocket-propelled grenades.

However, since neither Harry nor Ginny—nor most Ministry employees—were supposed to know what any of that meant, the Unspeakables simply called them Snorkacks as a running joke and homage to Xenophilius' cover story as a slightly unstable newspaper editor. As spell fire flashed inside the cottage, these ten men knelt down and put the large cylinders over their shoulders, sighted on the building, and fired. Ten bursts of rocket fire launched ten explosive warheads toward the cottage. The grenades punched through the stone walls as if they were paper and exploded once inside, and the night was filled with the screams of Death Eaters.

"Unit One, advance!" came Luna's altered voice. Harry ended his disillusionment charm to cut down on the chances of friendly fire and saw the remaining ten members of the team do the same around him. Besides himself and Ginny, only two other Unspeakables moved toward the cottage. The remaining six that advanced were the Aurors, who because of their cloaks were as anonymous as Harry and Ginny. For all he knew they could have included Filius Flitwick and Rolanda Hooch.

The inside of the cottage when they reached it, proved to be a mess. The charmed golems that looked so distressingly like Hermione's parents lay broken and scattered across the floor. Unfortunately, along with the broken clay of the golems they also saw pieces of broken flesh from the Death Eaters. Though he was not the first through, he still saw the true extent of the damage done. Despite the devastation though, magic could be a powerful protector. Witches and wizards often survived things that would have meant certain death to Muggles.

Adonis, acting as Team Leader, cast a revealing spell and once again proved this axiom. "Four survivors," he said. "Secure them."

Harry and Ginny narrowed in on the far wall where their revealing spell confirmed a survivor. Harry held a shield up while Ginny levitated a shattered table away. Their precaution, though wise, proved unnecessary. The Death Eater lay in a bloodied heap clutching a clearly broken wand. Ginny placed the man in stasis before she levitated him out of the cabin. In moments, the three other survivors were on the lawn as well, each in a stasis spell to keep them alive long enough to be interrogated.

"Control, we have four survivors, preparing Portkey," Adonis said.

The Aurors remained inside, cleaning up the mess while the Snorkack team cleaned and prepared to store their weapons. As Adonis prepared the rope Portkey that would take the Death Eaters back to the Ministry, Harry found himself staring at the nearest Death Eater. The boy appeared to be only a few years older than him, with a few thin wisps of facial hair. Harry did not recognize him at all and wondered if he had gone to Hogwarts or not.

Adonis secured the four captives and tapped the rope to activate it, but nothing happened. Immediately Adonis crouched down and lifted his wand in a silent detection charm. "Portkey wards!" he shouted. "Control, we have Portkey wards over the site."

"Acknowledged," came the quick reply. "Adonis, I am detecting newly activated wards as well. Portkey and apparition. They appear to be rune based; there are ward stones somewhere around the property."

Though Luna did not say it, everyone on the team went very still as the implication set in. "Aurors out of the house now!" Adonis roared, just a moment before the house exploded.

The concussion of the blast knocked Harry and Ginny off their feet, not to mention the rest of the team. It was only Adonis's quickly raised shields that saved them from the debris. "Enemy targets have apparated onto the field!" Luna warned. "Counting thirty strong, one giant. Say again, one giant."

"Defensive measures!" Adonis yelled. Harry, Ginny, Adonis and the others charmed the ground up into a five-foot high wall and then transfigured it into steel to provide cover just as the Snorkack team dove over it. Spell fire exploded across the width of the cliff as the Death Eaters entered the ward lines to attack.

The Snorkack Team, led by an agent under the code name Hunter, shouted, "We got ourselves a real fuck-up here, Laddies!" he shouted. "Reload and aim for the giant! Aim low let's blow the bloody thing's bits off!"

Harry couldn't help but wince. "Control, what's the status of those wards?" Adonis demanded.

"I am working to neutralize them now," Control said. "I estimate five minutes to break them. I cannot contact the Ministry until then."

"Make it a fast five minutes!" Adonis called. He summoned his Patronus, which took the shape of a dolphin, and spoke a code word for immediate assistance before sending it out. Harry watched it hopefully until it hit the ward line and dissolved.

"Damn it!" he heard their leader shout. "How did they figure out a ward against the Patronus Charm?"

By then the Snorkack team had reloaded and now came to the transfigured wall. "Aim low!" Hunter called. "Fire on three, two, one, FIRE!"

Ten more grenades flashed out across the ground. To give covering fire, Harry and the other agents stood and unleashed a huge torrent of spell chains that forced the Death Eaters to duck rather than try to block the rockets. The giant ignored them, having never seen any type of muggle projectile weapon and not having the intelligence to recognize it as a threat.

One after the other, the warheads slammed into its huge stomach and crotch, exploding and driving the screaming giant back in agony. The explosions did not eviscerate it simply because of the sheer density and magical properties of its skin, but they were enough definitely open up a large wound that seeped torrents of black-red blood under the cloudy evening, not to mention blowing it's loincloth clean off and shredding its giant-bits.

"Morgana's tits that's a big dick!" Hunter shouted. "We've already blown it half-off. Let's reload lads, I want to mount that thing in my yard!"

One of the Snorkack team screamed as a black curse struck his cowl, severing through both the cowl and the head within it. The man fell back dead to the ground. Meanwhile, the giant was stomping the ground and screaming in pain, before it spun about. From its height forty feet above the ground, every DoM agent there heard a mountainous voice growl out, "Eat bad wizards!" The monster started running toward them.

"Boss, next we shoot for the knees, not it's bloody bollocks," another of the Snorkack team shouted.

Harry looked over his shoulder at the cliff forty yards behind them, and then back to the massive monstrosity that was now five running steps from them. "Ginny, help me levitate it!" he hissed.

"Right," she said, instantly understanding. While the other Unspeakables launched desperate blasting spells at the nearly impervious giant, Harry gathered his magic as much as possible while at the same time thinking of the last time he had seen this tactic used against a large foe when he and Ron went to rescue Hermione from a troll. The giant was close, now.

"Adonis, summon the giant! Trip it forward!" Harry called.

Trusting his agents implicitly, Adonis ordered everyone to switch tactics and the remaining Unspeakables all stood and summoned the giant. The huge, ugly-looking beast grunted in surprise as he lost control of his own forward momentum and began to topple forward directly on top of where the Unspeakables held their defense.

Pushing all his power into it, Harry shouted "_Wingardium Leviosa_!" Behind him he heard Ginny do the same, and their magic seemed almost to twist together, hers acting as a booster to his own. The magic lifted the giant not just off the ground, but sent it flying well into the air a good sixty feet over their heads, before Harry and Ginny sent it flying over the two hundred foot cliff. The beast roared in fright before slamming head-first onto the beach out of sight. The sound of its neck breaking reverberated through the whole area like a staccato explosion.

"Did those two just use a First Year spell to kill a giant?" Hunter asked.

"Yes they did," Adonis said. "And if they can figure out a way to turn matches to needles and kill the thirty bastards coming down the hill right now, I'll be much obliged."

"Control, where are you?" Harry asked.

"I'm disabling the ward stones, of course," came the calm reply.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

When the giant went flying over the cliff, the Death Eaters paused in confusion, never in a million years believing that such a small force, caught completely by surprise, could kill their biggest weapon. However, while vicious and hateful, the Death Eaters were also terribly afraid of going back to Voldemort with a failure. So they reformed their line and proceeded with their attack.

Luna chose that moment to rise up from the disillusioned ditch she had been staying in for the past six hours and with a flick of her wand cast a glamour charm on her robes. The gray Unspeakable cloak became black, and her shadowed cowl became a silver mask. With that, she calmly walked out onto the field where her detection spells indicated the ward stones were buried.

There were of course two kinds of wards—wanded wards and runic wards. Wanded wards varied immensely depending upon the power of the caster, or casters, while Runic Wards were consistent and for the most part much, much more powerful. Runic Wards were also very difficult to deactivate or change, and so were less ideally suited for a combat situation.

Even in this case, the Death Eater forces walked a fine line. While the more powerful ward stones caught the Ministry Forces, those stones also kept the Death Eaters themselves from escaping, and so even though the Ministry team was outnumbered nearly two to one, if they were to turn the tide, the Death Eaters risked being caught by their own net.

However, Luna was a firm believer in overkill. If one Unspeakable could kill a Death Eater, ten could kill that same Death Eater much more assuredly with less risk both to the Unspeakable and the mission. In order to get those numbers, the ward stones had to fall.

She found the first stone and exposed it with a simple gauging spell. "What are you doing?" one of the few Death Eaters to linger behind the line demanded from behind her.

"Destroying the ward stone, of course," she told the man honestly. Her voice remained muffled and oddly androgynous due to her cowl, glamour or not.

The honest answer made the Death Eater hesitate, and while he did so Luna used her middle finger to toggle a pair of throwing knives from her arm holster. "Er, why are you doing that? Rowle said they had to stay up."

Luna spun and threw in a single motion. The Death Eater dropped his wand and grabbed at the knife protruding from his throat. Luna walked up to him, grabbed the handle of the knife and ripped it from his throat sideways, making sure to open the wound wider to allow a quicker bleed out.

"Hmmm," she thought to herself as she watched the man bleed. She stuck her hand into his throat and cupped a little bit of the blood, which she then splattered on the ward stone, before incanting an Egyptian blood boiling curse.

The blood on the stone turned white with incandescence as it burned with magic. Although the stone was less than a foot in width and half that in thickness, the heat produced from the curse caused Luna to take a step back. A moment later, the stone cracked in half as the magic within it shattered before the magical burning.

"Most excellent!" she said, clapping a little despite her bloody hand. She turned to the still gasping but nearly dead man and said: "You're coming with me!"

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The line of Death Eaters had no choice but to break their formation under the precision spell casting of the Unspeakables. Harry thought he and Ginny were good, but the wizards along the line cast with such casual accuracy that he realized his own spellcasting still had a way to go, though he was not too modest to admit that he still had more brute power at his command.

The best way to use that was to act as the magical artillery to the others' sniper shots. Whenever the Death Eaters tried to transfigure a barrier to hide behind, Harry and Ginny both fired over-powered blasting curses and reduced it to dust. Sometimes they killed one or two of the men behind the barrier, and if not, the others had caught on immediately and followed the blasting curses with precise Killing Curses.

The battle was not completely one-sided, unfortunately. Another Unspeakable fell, this time to an enemy killing curse, and twice Harry and Ginny barely avoided getting hit themselves. They had now lost eight people, though they knew the Death Eaters had lost far more.

"The wards are down," Control said. "Recommend tactical Apparations to my point. I am standing ten feet behind the largest formation of enemy wizards. They are disillusioned."

Which mean that with the witchsight of the cowls, they were as visible as if it were broad daylight.

"This is Adonis, Control's suggestion is approved. On the count of three Apparate to Control. Let's take this fight to the enemy—killing curses only."

Harry and Ginny ducked down behind the wall, grabbed each other's hands to prepare for close quarters combat, and waited for the order. "Three, two, one…"

They Apparated and emerged right next to Luna, and right behind seven Death Eaters who were even then casting over an earthen mound one of them had transfigured. One of them must have heard the apparition, but twelve killing curses were more than enough to kill seven dark wizards.

"Break and engage!" Adonis said.

Instantly the Unspeakables, including Luna now, broke up and went after separate targets, Apparating about the field with practiced efficiency. Harry and Ginny picked the nearest group—three Dark Wizards. A third Unspeakable joined them and wordlessly they killed the two from behind before moving on.

The Death Eaters either lacked the experience or sensibility to realize the anti-apparation wards were down at first, and with the sheer amount of magic saturating the battle field they did not immediately understand what the lights from the rear positions meant, until the Unspeakables came for them.

Unfortunately, the leader of the enemy forces proved to be more skilled than the others. When Ginny and Harry Apparated to his position and cast their joint killing curses, he popped away a split second before the two curses killed his cohort. Realizing they'd been made, Harry and Ginny wandlessly cast mild banishing charms against each other, just as a Killing Curse past through where Ginny stood a second before.

Both young Unspeakables spun about and engaged the Death Eater. The man moved with the aplomb and finesse of an experienced fighter, and as they fought Harry recognized a similarity in movement and style to Snape.

A tingle told him someone had cast a wanded ward over them, but he did not dare take his attention away from their opponent, for he was likely the best fighter on the field. However, as good as he was, Harry and Ginny fought with a coordination that bordered on the preternatural. The Death Eater was taller and stronger than they were, but he could only fire one spell at a time. When he cast at Ginny, Harry attacked, while Ginny pounced if he turned his attention to Harry. The two wove their way closer and closer, until Harry gathered his magic and apparated through the ward, breaking the magic.

He appeared directly behind the man and with every ounce of magic he could summon kicked the man right in the small of his back. The magically enhanced kick snapped the Death Eater's spine and sent him tumbling across the field.

"Hit Wizards are on the scene!" Control said. "They're timing is perfect," she added drily.

"You mean it's over?" Harry asked, bewildered. He watched as a fellow Unspeakable walked up to him and grabbed him by the shoulder.

"That it is, Laddie." It was Hunter, the leader of the Snorkack squad. "That was bloody fucking brilliant. Broke that arse-licking bag o' shite in half, you did."

"Er, yeah, thanks."

They turned in time to see Adonis walking angrily toward the Auror leading the team of Hit Wizards. Harry blinked in surprise to see Kingsley Shacklebolt and started drifting over. "I'll secure our prisoner," Ginny said.

"Oh, yeah, thanks G…Artemis," Harry corrected himself as he continued to drift toward the very heated conversation developing between Adonis and Kingsley.

He arrived just in time to hear Adonis finish a rant while demanding to know what the hell happened to cause the loss of six top Aurors and another two Unspeakables. Kingsley actually wilted right before their eyes.

"Robards realized he'd been made," Shacklebolt admitted. "We don't know when he sent the signal, but he managed to escape from the Ministry right before we could take him into custody. We followed him, but got caught in another ambush. I lost people tonight too."

"Who?" Harry demanded.

Shacklebolt could not see Harry's face or hear his normal voice, but somehow he looked as if he knew. "Tonks is alive, but she's hurt badly. She's at St. Mungo's. Also lost Wilkinson and Brotson. The whole night's gone balls-up."

"Not entirely," Luna said as she drifted closer, also hidden by her cloak. "We've killed or captured forty Death Eaters tonight. We took losses, but I would not call this a defeat."

Kingsley blinked. "Forty? But there were only twenty of you…"

"And Apollo and Artemis single-handedly took out a giant," Adonis said. "He's on the beach. We'll need Obliviators to take care of the mess. In the meantime, I have a squad drenched in dark magic. We need to do purifying rituals soon."

"Of course, sir," Shacklebolt said. "We're sorry to be late for the party. We'll clean up here."

"Right. Unspeakable units return to base."

Harry and Ginny each summoned their Ministry-issued brooms before activating their personal Portkeys. A second later they appeared on the incoming platform in the Department of Mysteries, to be met by five more Unspeakables with their wands pointed at them. "Identify!"

"Apollo and Artemis," Harry said.

"Alpha 23510 and Beta 42356," Ginny added.

"You two look like shite," one of the Unspeakables said.

"Mission went balls up," Harry said as he stepped out of the landing area just in time for two more to arrive. They also went through the security check.

"Adonis, Epsilon 24563."

"Nemesis, Omega 666."

Adonis led Luna to Harry and Ginny, and then the three teens through the halls of the Department of Mysteries until they arrived at the ritual rooms. The rooms did not have the detailed, magically imbued Merlin circle that Dumbledore had used, but the simpler circle was enough.

"Robes off," Adonis said. He stripped off his robe as did the teens, and he and Harry and Ginny sat at the circle, while Luna left the room to begin writing the after action report. "You two are drenched," Adonis warned. "This ritual is going to be worse than normal. You will both have one hell of a headache when we're done."

"Will it take too long?" Ginny asked. "Mum and Dad are probably going spare."

"An hour tops," Adonis promised. "Then you can go home and rest. Merlin knows it's been a long enough day. Let's get this mission topped of and filed. I'm done in."

* * *

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading!


	42. The Morning After

Chapter 41 Review Responses are available in my forums. Thank you for reading!

* * *

**Chapter Forty-Two: Morning After**

Harry woke to whispered voices, and with well-honed instincts, sat up with his wand pointed at the source of the noise. Ginny sat up right as he did, her wand also aimed at the voices. He then realized that Ginny was beside him, in his bed at the Burrow, in a room that was supposed to be charmed to prevent just that.

He heard a familiar voice make an _Eep_, and then say, "Please don't hex me."

"Hermione?" Harry summoned his glasses and the world came into focus to show Hermione and Ron just inside their door, and behind them, the Weasley twins.

"You two are not supposed to be in here together," Ron said, scowling.

"Stuff it, Ron," Ginny said automatically with a spine-snapping yawn and stretch. "Merlin I'm tired." She rubbed her eyes before looking around with a confused expression. "Wait, what am I doing in here?"

Harry shrugged. "Dunno. You weren't here when I crashed last night."

"I can't remember anything after the cleansing ritual," Ginny muttered. "I don't even remember getting back home."

"Did we shower last night?" Ginny asked.

"Not together, I hope!" Ron said.

Harry did his friend a favour and ignored the comment. "Must have, I don't stink," he said. "But you smell like…chicken salad?"

Just then Arthur arrived, his face carefully neutral. "Harry, Ginny, is there a reason you two slept in the same bed last night?" Harry noted how carefully Mr. Weasley worded the statement to avoid implying anything else happened.

"Yeah, sorry,' Ginny said, not sounding sorry at all. "We're still trying to figure out what happened last night. Why do we smell like chicken salad?"

"You had some when you got home last night," Arthur said. "And then I thought you went to sleep in your own rooms."

"Huh, must have sleepwalked," Ginny said.

"You sleepwalk?" That was news to Harry.

"One time she sleepwalked into the living room and peed on the couch," Fred said.

"She was five," George added.

Ginny stared at her oldest brother with a look of utter shock that he would dare reveal such a thing. "Fred and George Weasley," she finally said, "you have approximately ten seconds to get out of this room before I curse your heads so far up your…"

"That's enough," Mr. Weasley said. "Ginny, did you deactivate the charm on Harry's room?"

"I probably burned it out by accident," Harry said, "I'm sorry Mr. Weasley. But…oh, I think I need to go be sick!"

His sudden break in composure startled all of them as he rushed to the bathroom and closed the door. They could hear him retching from inside. "Why is he being sick?" Ron asked.

Ginny glared at her brother. "We had to go through a purification ritual last night, Ron. We killed people, not to mention losing co-workers in the fight, and the side effect of the ritual is… oh bugger. Harry, make room!" She rushed to the bathroom as well, almost bowling her father over."

"They killed people?" Fred asked flatly of their father.

"And went through a purification ritual?" George added.

"We will not talk about it anymore in this house," Arthur said. "This is a holiday, and for the next two weeks we are done with work."

By the time Harry and Ginny stumbled down the stairs, the rest of the family was gathered around the kitchen table eating. Hermione was there next to Ron, as were the twins. The surprise was Percy and a lovely young woman named Audrey who introduced herself with a shy smile.

Ginny ignored her parents and walked around to give the eldest boy there a hug, and then she hit his shoulder hard enough to make him yelp. "That's for not coming over sooner. Mum and Dad were starting to think you were embarrassed by us!"

"I'm sorry, Ginevra," Percy said in a high-pitched voice.

Surprisingly, Ginny let him get away with uttering her full name as she came back around and sat next to Harry, before holding her head in her hands. "Oh, I feel wretched," she muttered.

"You look wretched," George said.

"In a lovely way, of course," Fred added.

"Shush, you two," Arthur said. "Ginny, do you need a pain potion?"

"Actually," Harry said, blushing, "we've been told that…well, a hangover potion actually works better."

Molly flushed red. "A hangover potion? Ginevra Weasley, have you been drinking?"

"Molly!" Arthur pulled her down and whispered something to her. The Weasley matriarch stood from the table and disappeared into the walk-in pantry, before returning a moment later with two phials.

"Fortunately for you two we still have some from when Bill and Charlie still lived here," she said primly, but without further condemnation.

"Thanks, Mum."

"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley."

The teens downed the potion without hesitation, and a moment later both sighed as the magic in the potion helped fight some of the effects of the ritual. "Mr. Weasley," Harry said, "do we have any word about Tonks?"

"She's at St. Mungo's. We can visit later, but for now I would like us to have a meal together as family and friends. Percy, how long can you stay?"

"Just 'til noon," Percy said, managing to put an apology in his tone. "I do have Christmas and Boxing Day off, but I'm low man in the leave schedule and got put on for mandatory duty in the Obliviator's office."

"Ah, yes!" Arthur said. "I remember those days myself. Accidental magic never takes a holiday, does it?" Arthur said.

"Our first three Christmases, Arthur had to work," Molly said. "Made for sad holidays for Bill, Charlie, and me, that last Christmas."

They ate in relative silence before Audrey said, "Mr. Potter, is it true that you and Miss Weasley sat your NEWTs already?"

"It's Harry," Harry said with a disarming grin. He recognized Audrey from his first and second year at Hogwarts—a Hufflepuff. He wondered what happened to Penelope, but a look from Ginny convinced him not to ask. "And we did, but we've been getting special…tutoring, you might say, since my second year and Ginny's first."

"That's still very impressive, Harry," Percy said, a little of the pompousness Harry remembered coming through. "You'll go far, I'm sure. So you and Ginny are together, then?"

"Yes," Ginny said, speaking with such steel in her voice she closed that avenue of conversation down at once.

"Harry has shown himself to by a young man of the highest character," Arthur said. "Whatever else can be said, I know that he will always treat our Ginny with honour."

"And if not," George began.

"She'll hex him," Fred finished.

"She might do that anyway just to keep him in line," Hermione said, before covering her mouth.

The twins looked at Hermione, then Ron, and then both with oddly stereoscopic vision. "Something you need to tell us there, Ronnikins?" George asked.

Ron sat up a little straighter and said, "I asked Hermione to be my girlfriend."

"He wrote the loveliest letter," Hermione said.

Molly beamed, leaning forward eagerly. "Did he really? Ron wrote you a letter?"

"It was a truly lovely letter," Hermione said. "It may be one I keep forever."

"Should I write you a letter?" Harry asked Ginny. "I could put flowery things in it."

"I wouldn't want you to strain yourself, Harry," Ginny said with a giggle. "I thought Ron was going to pop a blood vessel writing his."

The meal progressed with a contented happiness that left Harry oddly relaxed and tired. Finally, after thanking them for the meal, Audrey and Percy left so they could return to their respective positions, and the rest of the family moved into the living room to sit over coffee by the fireplace. Outside was cold and wet, though there was no snow yet in that part of the country.

"So Dad," George and Fred both said, speaking in tandem, "give any thought to our proposal?"

"Boys," Mr. Weasley said, "a thousand galleons is a lot of money. It's not that I don't want to help, it's simply that we don't have that much in our vaults to loan you."

"What's this?" Ron asked.

"Well," Mr. Weasley said, "your brothers have drawn up a rather impressive business plan for a new shop."

"Waste of time and effort, if you ask me," Molly said from her rocker, where she was already settled in knitting. "If you would just put more effort into your studies, you could get a real job at the Ministry, like your brother Percy."

Ginny laughed aloud. "Mum, could you really imagine George and Fred working at the Ministry? Department of Pranks?"

Molly frowned, while Arthur smiled and scratched at his chin. "Even I have to admit our boys don't really have that mentality, Molly."

"I can give you the money," Harry said.

"Harry!" Molly began.

"We don't accept gifts like that, Harry," Arthur said. "And a thousand galleons is…"

"A pittance from my trust vault," Harry said. "Remember the Tri-Wizard winnings? I didn't want them, but they gave them to me anyway. And if you don't want it to be a gift, then I'll make an investment. Make me a silent partner in your shop—that way there's no guilt, and if you're successful I'll take the money back from the earnings."

"Harry, you're underage…" Arthur began.

"I'm fifteen, and I've sat my NEWTs," Harry pointed out. "Isn't that when Amelia told me I could petition for emancipation? Not that I'm unhappy here," he added quickly. "You and Mrs. Weasley have been wonderful. But I know those two, and I think they could really make a killing with their shop."

"Do you even know what they're going to sell?" Hermione asked, sounding prim and more than a little like Molly.

"It's the twins," Ginny said from Harry's side, "they're going to sell jokes and pranks, of course."

Molly was singularly opposed of course, but Arthur was a little more accepting having read through the business plan. They talked for a while longer before settling in for a relaxing day. With the warmth of the room, the howling cold wind outside, and Ginny curled up at his side, it was little wonder that Harry gave into his exhaustion and slipped into a deep sleep.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Molly beamed at the beautiful Muggleborn girl as Hermione gave her a hug, thanking her profusely for letting her stay. She turned and hugged Arthur as well, emotionally thanking him for his role in protecting her parents. Finally, she gave Ron a long hug, which ended with an innocent peck on the cheek that still caused the boy's face to light up in happiness.

Finally, Hermione looked to the young couple completely passed out on the couch, and said, "They look so cute together I just don't want to wake them. Let them know I said thanks, Ron?"

"I will," Ron promised.

With that, Hermione and Arthur stepped outside into the freezing afternoon. The rain had turned to sleet, and then finally to a light dusting of snow and the sudden gust of cold made Molly shiver. She walked to the linen cupboard and removed a blanket, intending to drop it over Harry and Ginny, but as she approached she was struck by a bubble of warm air that seemed to surround the couch.

Ron walked by her and grinned. "Brilliant, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?" Molly asked, confused.

"Sometimes after they work out at school, they find a sofa at the back of the common room and pass out like that. Doesn't matter how far from the fire they are, they're always warm. Some of the first years have learned that if they can study close enough, they can keep warm just from their magic."

Arthur returned a moment later, having escorted Hermione beyond the wards so she could take the international portkey to join her parents. The twins had already left by then, and Ron begged off staying on the first floor so he could go get some of his school work done.

"I'm very proud of you, Ron," Molly said. "Your marks have really improved this year."

"Thank Hermione," he said with a self-deprecating smile.

When his son had left, Arthur came and stood beside his wife, who still clutched the blanket in her hands, and stared down at the teens. Harry lay on his side, with Ginny contoured perfectly with his body. They shared the same throw pillow, with her head just below his; his arm was wrapped possessively around her waist, securing her on the sofa and pulling her closer. Most remarkable, though, was the magic and heat pouring off the young couple, enough to make the air shimmer over them.

What made Molly's stomach clench was how Harry's hand had worked its way under Ginny's shirt—it now rested on her bare stomach, just six inches or so below her breasts. And there was no doubt Ginny had sprouted breasts—the girl definitely took after her mother in that regard, but with a lithe figure that seemed more from the Weasley side. Molly herself was never so thin, even at Ginny's age.

She sighed into Arthur when his arm pulled her closer. "I'm not ready for her to grow up," Molly admitted softly. "Arthur, was it really so bad last night? The paper said…"

"The paper printed what Minister Bones ordered it to print," Arthur said. "We were able to spin it all into a victory, but the truth is Gawain Robards was a traitor, and he escaped, and we lost almost a dozen Aurors between the DoM operation and the ambush at the Ministry. Lovegood told me if not for Harry and Ginny, they would have lost the whole team."

Molly looked back down at the seemingly idyllic couple sleeping on the couch, unconsciously pouring more magic out in ambient heat than she could generate in her strongest spell, and she was a very strong witch. "Are they intimate?"

"Not yet, at least I don't believe so," Arthur said, "but it's only a matter of time. Given everything I know, I can't say I object too much to Harry and Ginny together. It's that blasted Lovegood girl who scares me."

Molly thought back to a vision she had, two years ago perhaps, when she saw Harry, Ginny and a thin blonde girl together, and she shivered at the memory. "Arthur, should I…should I have the talk with Ginny about potions and charms?"

"Yes," Arthur said. "Yes, I think so. I'm going to take Harry to visit Tonks this evening; I think that would be a good time. After all, you were only fifteen."

"And it was a bloody mess," Molly said with an uncharacteristic curse. "I wasn't ready and it made a mess of my whole Fifth Year. I'm lucky I even passed my OWLs."

Arthur kissed her head. "That was because it wasn't with me."

Molly shivered again, and then smiled. "You know, you might be right. How are your silencing charms?"

The two left to their own room. Behind them, Ginny cracked an eye and said, "Ewww."

"Old people have sex too," Harry said from behind her. "On our only summer holiday together Sirius had a different woman in the flat almost every night. He kept trying to get me to bring a girl back too."

Ginny spun around on the couch until she faced him. "Why didn't you?"

"Like I said at the World Cup, none of them were you," Harry said.

A very heavy snogging session later that ended with Ginny's bra undone and Harry's trousers uncomfortably tight, Ginny backed away, stood and started fixing her clothes. "We are not going to have sex in my parents' house," she declared firmly.

"Why not- they are." Harry asked.

Ginny grimaced. "And that, Harry, is exactly why not. Come on let's help mum get some dinner started. If I'm going to have to sit through the Talk with Mum, you might as well do some cooking."

"That doesn't make sense."

Ginny glared; Harry gave up and stood, adjusting his trousers. "Hey, Ginny," he said before she pulled away completely.

"What?"

"You're beautiful. Thank you for being with me."

She paused, caught off guard by his simple statement. "You silly boy," she whispered, coming to give him one last, toe-curling kiss. "Now let's get to cooking."

By the time that Arthur and Molly emerged from their bedroom completely dressed and ready for the rest of the evening, it was to the smells of dinner mostly cooked. Harry and Ginny kept things simple with a roasted chicken with potatoes, onions and carrots, while Ginny baked a loaf of rye bread to have with the meal.

The smells dragged Ron down the stairs to join them, and Molly was so pleased at not having to cook that she took a large vat of homemade ice cream from the icebox that she reserved for special treats.

When they were done and Ron was set to cleaning the dishes, since Harry and Ginny cooked, Arthur said, "Harry, would you still like to visit Tonks?"

"I would, thank you," Harry said.

"Ginny, maybe you could help me in the pantry," Molly said quickly.

Ginny grinned at Harry, rolled her eyes, and said, "Sure, Mum."

After Harry and Arthur were gone, and while Ron continued to wash up, Molly pulled Ginny to the girl's bedroom. "Now Ginny," she began, "you're growing up so fast. We've talked a little, but I've never…"

"I know the _prophylaxis_ charm, Mum," Ginny said. "I started the birth control potion in September when I started getting bad cramps. Madam Pomfrey said it was not unusual for the more powerful witches to suffer cramps, and the potion helps keep that in control. Harry and I have not gone that far, and I can't tell you when we will, but if it happens, we will be safe. I promise."

By the time she finished, Molly's face had turned bright red. Ginny paused, waiting for the inevitable explosion, and was stunned instead by tears. "Mum? What's wrong? I learned all this in my Witch's Care class in September. There's nothing to be upset about."

"You're just growing up so fast!" Molly said. "You're my only little girl. I'm supposed to guide you through these steps, and you've already jumped ahead of me!"

"Not that far ahead," Ginny said quickly. "It's just… Did you ever date anyone besides dad?"

Molly wiped her eyes, and when Ginny handed her a tissue blew her nose as well. "Yes, I did. I dated two boys before your father."

"Did you think either of them was the _one_?"

"Well, no, not really. I wasn't even sure your father was the one for me at first. It wasn't until after we'd been dating for a year that I realized just how wonderful a husband he would be."

Ginny stepped around and sat down on her bed, then patted a space beside her. Molly sat as well, giving her only daughter a one-armed hug. "I guess it's different with me and Harry," Ginny said softly. "There's no doubt, Mum. He is the _One_. I've never even thought of any other boys, and when we're old enough I have no doubt we'll get married. I love him, and I know he loves me."

Molly dabbed her eyes again, touched by the absolute certainty in her daughter's voice. "And, what about Luna, Ginny?"

She felt Ginny stiffen. "What about her?"

"She has these attacks whenever Harry is hurt. I saw that Ministry healer while we were visiting Harry, and she worked as much with you and Luna as she did Harry. Do you love Luna too?"

"I'm not sure we should talk about that," Ginny admitted, uncomfortable with the conversation for the very first time.

"Luna isn't right," Molly said sadly. "I don't know the whole story, but I know she's not right in the head. I doubt she ever will be. I know that you and Harry are trying to help her, but I also know she's involved in this project of yours. I just don't want you to be hurt; you may never have thought of another boy, but I know Harry's thought of another girl."

It was not fair for Molly to put it that way, but Ginny knew she was telling the truth. "Would you still love me if our relationship was not like other people?" she finally asked.

Molly saw her daughter, standing nude before a mirror, while behind her an equally nude Harry and Luna lounged happily on a bed, looking at her. The memory was so clear, the vision itself so clear, that for a moment Molly thought she were looking at a living image. "I'll always love you, Ginny," she said. "And I'll always love Harry. I can see his influence on you—he's made you a kinder, more compassionate woman, just as you've made him a stronger, more confident man. I won't condemn you for doing what you must to be happy, but I hope you'll understand when I say that Luna will not be welcome here. We can't forget how she hurt Percy."

"I understand, Mum," Ginny said, kissing Molly's cheek. "I love you. And I know Harry loves you too. Nothing will change that."

Really, Molly decided, that was all she could ask for.

* * *

sp

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading!


	43. Wounded

**Author's Note**: There is a very frank discussion in this chapter concerning Harry, Ginny and Luna. As I've been hinting at, there is some H/G/L in this fic, but this chapter frames the context, reasons, and limitations of such a relationship. The relationship is not entered into lightly.

Review responses from Chapter 42 are available in my forums.

* * *

**Chapter Forty-Three: Wounded**

Harry was surprised to see Remus Lupin at St. Mungo's.

The werewolf looked exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes as he sat in a small lounge off the hall from Tonks's room. He sat on a chair surrounded by old copies of _Witch Weekly_, _Warlocks Weekend Review_ and issues of the _Daily Prophet_, while clutching a cup of nasty smelling coffee.

He looked up and smiled weakly when he saw Harry and Arthur step in. "Harry! Arthur!" he exclaimed, "I'm so glad to see you. How are you, Harry? Adonis said the mission was a dog's breakfast."

"Ginny and I killed a giant," Harry said distractedly. "Remus, what are you doing here?"

"Well, you know, Dora and I are good friends and…"

"She's his girlfriend, though I can't say why," a new voice said from behind them.

It was spoken in jest, and yet Harry could see the words hurt his father's friend. Harry turned and saw a strikingly attractive woman with jet black hair and an oval-shaped face that reminded him a great deal of Bellatrix Lestrange. Beside him, Arthur smiled and stepped forward to give the woman a hug.

"Andromeda," he said, "I wish I could have come sooner. How are you and Ted holding up?"

"As well as can be, given the circumstances," Andromeda Tonks said. "We can't seem to heal the blasted curse You-Know-Who used. We've slowed it, we've determined the counter we need to use, but we just don't have the power to dispel it, and it's very worrisome. I can see it cutting deeper into her chest every hour." She wiped her eyes before turning to Harry.

"You must be Mr. Potter," she said. "Sirius always spoke very highly of you, and Dora did as well. Sirius was my first cousin, which makes us cousins as well on your paternal grandmother's side. I'm Andromeda Tonks."

"An honour to meet you, ma'am." Harry took her hand, but was surprised when she pulled him into a hug.

Pulling away, she held him by his shoulders. "We're family, Harry, and family takes care of its own. You truly do look like your father, but thank Merlin you inherited your mother's eyes. James's eyes were so…ordinary for such an extraordinary boy. Did you know we dated for a few months?"

"No," Harry said, genuinely surprised.

"Until she caught him making calf eyes at Lily," Remus said with a smile. "You were a terrible couple, Andromeda. Lily had a field day with all the pureblood inbreeding jokes."

"Oh, I know," Andromeda said with a dismissive wave. "But it made Ted jealous enough to finally step up like a man. Never second-guess Slytherin courting rituals." She took a deep breath and looked back at Harry. "I know you came to visit her, Harry, but because of the nature of the curse she's not a pretty sight and unconscious as well. She's in too much pain to be kept awake right now."

"Andy, what are they doing for power?" Arthur asked.

"They've asked for help from around the world. Dumbledore is too ill. There's a Sport in Africa they've tried to recruit, but the witch is famous for her refusal to travel. There's also a coven of witches in Turkey which is well known for using a ritual runic array to unify their power through the coven leader, but they're extraordinarily expensive. Minister Bones is hesitant to make a request for a known Sport in Australia since he is actually in their Muggle government as well."

Harry went very still as she spoke, slowly turning to look back at Remus. Remus must have been thinking the same thing, because he was staring wide-eyed at Harry. "I'm sorry we couldn't visit," Harry said. "Will you please give her my regards? She really did a lot for me after Sirius died."

"I will, Harry," Andromeda said. "Thank you all for coming by."

"Harry, mind if I join you two for a bit?" Remus asked.

Andromeda nodded to them before returning to her daughter's room. "I need my cloak," Harry said.

"Is that necessary? At this point, is there anyone who doesn't realize you're a Sport?" Remus asked softly.

"Most people, in fact," Arthur said. "It's known Harry is a powerful wizard, but most of the public do not even know that Sports exist. I myself didn't, until this summer. People know some wizards are more powerful than others, but if they truly understood the exponential difference between you and me, for instance, and Harry, some would grow afraid." He looked back at Harry and said, "You want to help her, of course."

"Yeah, with Ginny too, if possible. We're getting really good at linking our spells. If my power could do it, our power together will definitely get it done with ease."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Ginny was more than happy to leave her emotional mother behind when they Flooed from the Ministry. Moments later three cloaked Unspeakables entered St. Mungo's. It was decided that it would not be wise for Arthur to accompany them, but it so happened Adonis was still on duty and accepted his role of escort with a generous smile.

When the three arrived, the receptionist looked as if she were about to have a heart attack. Adonis said, with his disguised voice, "We have come on behalf of Auror Nymphadora Tonks. Please escort us to her room."

A nervous orderly led them through the lifts to the trauma ward, where they were met by the Auror on guard duty, and Andromeda and Ted Tonks. Ted was a short, broad-shouldered man with thinning, sandy-colored hair and light brown eyes. He had almost a thuggish face, save for the sad, worried smile there as he stood beside his wife.

"What is the Department of Mysteries doing here?" Andromeda asked sharply. Unfortunately, the Department did not have the best reputation in the world.

"We believe we may be of assistance in the treatment of your daughter," Adonis said. "May we speak in private?"

They removed themselves to the lounge where Harry had met them earlier, and he and Ginny put up their full suite of privacy wards. "What I am about to tell you is to be held in the strictest of confidence," Adonis began. "If you disclose this information, our department may elect at our leisure to either have you either dismissed from employment, or possibly sentenced to time in Azkaban. Do you understand?"

"Not really," Ted said, speaking for the first time. For a man with such a broad, strong face, his voice sounded rather light and airy. "But go on."

"The Department of Mysteries has access to a Sport," Adonis said, nodding to Harry. "A pair of Sports, in fact. The Ministry takes care of its own and Auror Tonks is highly regarded as having a bright future with the DMLE. While these two are not trained in healing magic, they are powerful enough to dispel any magic with proper instruction. They are here to heal your daughter."

Ted stared at the two with such hope in his eyes it made Harry tear up, while Andromeda bit her lip. "I pray to Merlin this is not some cruel, twisted joke," she said. "Come on."

Tonks' room was unusually large and private, with a single bed set in a room large enough for three. There were lights all around, casting her in unsparing bright light. Harry could not help but notice that she was nude from the waist up, and he was still male and young enough to be fascinated by the young woman's rather large breasts. However, the sight was marred by a horrific black scar that ran vertically from her right shoulder to her left hip—no, it wasn't a scar. As they walked closer, he could see heat shimmering off the black gouge, with hints of orange coming from within it. Somehow it was still burning Tonks, cutting through her body with terrible, implacable slowness. If left unchecked, it would cut the witch in two.

"Merlin," he whispered despite himself.

Walking briskly, Andromeda moved to the side of the bed. "I am a healer, but she is my daughter. I can't treat her myself. We will have to have other healers present to monitor the attempt; they will bring the rune stones. Is this agreeable?"

"Whatever we have to do," Harry said, speaking out of turn but unable to stop himself.

Andromeda stared at him a moment; his voice was charmed, but she acted as if she recognized it. Still, she tapped a plate on the wall, and then said, "Perhaps I should call Healer Atkinson then."

Five minutes later an older man in blue healer robes stepped into the room, only to pause and blink at the Unspeakables. "That's interesting," he said. Behind him came three more healers, and two mediwitches in white. "Is this our solution, then?"

"I hope so, Saul," Andromeda said.

The Rune stones the Healer began to place around Tonks's bed were palm-sized, perfectly hemispherical basalt stones covered in some of the most intricate runes Harry had ever seen. He recognized individual runes from his classes, but could not even begin to read or understand the arrays the runes created.

"These stones absorb magic and redirect them into the curse," Atkinson explained to Harry and Ginny. "Unfortunately they cannot accept wanded magic directly since any wanded magic is manifested by intent and will, which would conflict with the runic instructions of the stones themselves. The stones require raw magical input. That's why power is such an issue. What we will need is for one or both of you to direct your magic as you would flare an aura, directly into the wound itself. Can you do that?"

"Yes," Harry said, with the cowl's charm sounding much more confident than he felt. Mentally switching to the cowl's inner communication, he said, "Ginny, do you think you can do this with me?"

"Just link us," she said. "I'll send everything I have to you, and you can funnel it into Tonks."

Harry walked to Tonks's side, studying the horrific gash, and also the pale, sweating countenance of the Auror herself. He knew with certainty that Sirius would want him to do this. Looking up, he saw Ginny come around to the other side of the bed. The four stones were positioned evenly across the length of the wound, and Harry couldn't help but notice that the blankets had been pulled down more to make room for the stone, exposing Tonks' pelvic bone as well.

"Mind on task," he heard Ginny's voice said.

"Sorry."

"You're a boy, I get it. And she is a beautiful woman. She's also a friend who doesn't deserve this."

"You're right," Harry said with determination. "That's why we're going to make this right." He leaned forward and placed his hands on the gash—the left above her breasts, his right on her ribs below. Ginny reached across and placed her hands over his, and he could already feel her magic entwining with his, like slipping on a familiar glove.

He felt his magic bubbling within him, stronger than ever, with Ginny's wrapped delicately around it, making his power into a beautiful poetry. He opened himself to that power now, willing it through his hands and into the body of Tonks.

Underneath his hands, he could feel the heat from the curse still working, and he embraced his righteous anger at what Voldemort did to his friend. Around the room, Atkinson, Adonis, Andromeda and the rest backed away as the magic around the two young Unspeakables flared to almost impossible brightness. The stones on Tonks's chest also took on a brilliant white glow as they absorbed the magic and directed it against the curse.

Suddenly Harry felt the stones stop absorbing his magic and pulled back. When his eyes adjusted to the light, he and Ginny were resting their hands on the beautiful, whole torso of Nymphadora Tonks. The only indication of what happened was a pencil-thin scar that marked where the curse struck. Harry knew that no amount of power could completely erase a curse scar, but it was so small that it did not detract from the whole.

He backed off a step, surprised that he did not feel tired at all, while Ginny gently pulled the bed cover up until Tonks was covered.

At the foot of the bed, Adonis looked at Atkinson and the other healers. "We were not here," he said, now channelling danger and a threat in his voice. "You saw nothing. You were able to heal Tonks with the stones and your own power. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Unspeakable," Atkinson said.

"Thank you, so much," Andromeda said, wiping away more tears. "We can never repay you for what you've done."

Very softly, so no one but Andromeda and Ginny could hear, Harry whispered, "Family takes care of its own."

She smiled up at his glamoured, hidden face and nodded, wiping her eyes again. "They do. Thank you, and when she is home, please drop by."

"We will," Harry said.

When they left the hospital, Adonis said, "That was a very good thing you did, Harry. You must be exhausted."

"No, not really," Harry said. "Ginny, how 'bout you?"

"No," she said. "Besides, I'm still too keyed up over the Talk."

Between them, they heard Adonis chuckle. "I hope you didn't shatter her illusions too badly, Artemis."

"No, I don't think so," Ginny said. "So how old were you when you started dating Aphrodite?"

"Thirteen, actually," Adonis said. "But then again, she _was_ Aphrodite, and the DoM did not have any moral standards to guide us on what thirteen-year-old kids should and should not do. You may remember I was an orphan taken in by Zeus. Remember that, Harry, Ginny. Hera was Zeus's moral compass, and when she died… Well, we trained you to be fighters, not moral people. That is something you will have to turn to others for."

"We know," Harry said. They apparated back to the Department of Mysteries before walking to the row of fireplaces.

"Adonis," Ginny said, before the older Unspeakable departed, "is there someone we could talk to, about Luna I mean? Not you or her father, but maybe a healer or a counsellor?"

With his cowl down, they could see the look of surprise on the older man's face. However, it quickly changed into a pensive expression before he nodded. "Yes. You remember Asclepius?"

"Healer Richardson, yes," Ginny said. "She helped a great deal with Luna after Harry's injury."

Adonis nodded and said, "Good. I'll set an appointment with her. Zeus considers Luna's treatment a Department matter since she is a Department asset, so your session will fall under that same billing."

"Thank you," Harry said, grateful Ginny thought to bring it up.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The next day, Harry and Ginny Flooed to the Rookery to train, while Ron spent the day with the twins, who were back from their stay at Lee Jordan's house. Zeus himself was on the course with them, directing their efforts and teaching them new moves or techniques, while reviewing those they already knew. It was the first refresher training they'd had since the year began. When Harry mentioned Proudfoot's offer of training, the head of the Unspeakables agreed with the idea wholeheartedly.

"If the man had just a little more magical power, we'd have recruited him," Zeus said. "Unfortunately he's well below the 50th percentile, so he wouldn't have made it through our vetting process. Now, we've done some good work, but we need to end for the day. Luna and I have an appointment at the Department."

Luna gave Harry and Ginny a long, lingering hug. Given the cold and snow on the training ground, she was relatively bundled, but Harry could still feel her chest pressing against him before she started back toward the house.

Xenophilius, however, lingered a moment, easily slipping from his Unspeakable persona to that of a father. "Asclepius will be here in five minutes," he said to the two of them quietly. "She instructed Luna and me to leave the house to ensure that you have freedom to discuss whatever you want. Please know that anything discussed or decided will have no impact with your roles at the Department."

The thought hadn't even occurred to Harry, until Xenophilius mentioned it. "Er, thank you, sir," he said quickly. "Where are you taking Luna?"

"To her physical healer. Richardson is too valuable of an asset to handle for simple physical check-ups." He turned to leave and paused again. "This may sound odd, but considering the roles you play in her life, you should be aware that we are placing her on a birth control potion. It is a modified potion that we hope will help with some of her more blatant…tendencies."

"Like masturbating in the Ravenclaw common room?" Ginny asked, before she covered her mouth and flushed. "Sorry, shouldn't have said that."

"It's alright," he said. "And yes, that's exactly it. The libido potion is hit or miss. It kills her tendencies when she takes it, but the effects wear off before it is safe for her to take another dose. We're hoping for something more stable. We'll see. In the meantime, there is tea and biscuits in the kitchen. Good luck with your discussion."

After he and Luna disappeared, almost within a minute, the fireplace flared green and Raphaella Richardson stepped out. The healer was just as beautiful and stately as they remembered from Hogwarts, and her smile was just as warm and inviting. "My goodness," she said, blinking. "Is all that magic coming from you, Harry? You have come into your magical maturity, haven't you?"

"You said I might, after that potion," Harry said.

"Well, let's all have a seat so we can be comfortable," she said. With a flick of her wand she levitated the tray of tea and biscuits from the kitchen, obviously having discussed with Xenophilius beforehand where they might be. They settled down on the Lovegood's Spartan furnishings with teacups in hand. As they did so, Harry found himself caught in the wave of the warmth she projected, which made him think of Fleur and her allure, which instantly caused him to raise his Occlumency barriers in alarm. "Are you projecting emotions onto us?" he finally asked, more sharply than he probably needed to.

Raphaella blinked in surprise, but then after a moment smiled slyly. "Yes, Harry. It is a type of compound wandless cheering and calming charm mind healers must master before we are certified. To be honest, I don't even think about it anymore."

"Does it work on Luna?" Ginny asked.

Raphaella laughed. "Not in the slightest—and I suppose we've come to our reason for talking today." She made a show of straightening her loose dress around her knees while Harry and Ginny sipped tea on a sofa across from her.

"Harry, Ginny, first off I want to say that, in a very real sense, what we are doing borders on the unethical," she said, her smile faltering before her earnestness. "I have taken Luna's case both to my Muggle and magical counterparts, and I can tell you that in the Muggle world what we are doing would get us all arrested. My magical colleagues were a little more understanding, but even among them there is a great deal of discomfort over the situation."

"You mean Xeno using Harry and I as social anchors for Luna," Ginny guessed.

"That's correct. First, let's talk about what we mean by social anchors, since we have borrowed that term from Muggle Sociology. Social Anchor Theory states that there are certain institutions within any civilization that anchor social networks. Within the wizarding world, professional Quidditch could be considered a social anchor, for instance, since it gives wizards from all walks of life a common interest. Adjusting that broad model to the personal, we found ourselves struggling to find some common interest that could bring Luna more in line with societal norms. She is so terribly damaged by what happened when she was nine that it proved to be a vexing challenge. She spent six months in a psychiatric ward after she attacked your older brother, Ginny, and we were all worried that she would not be able to attend Hogwarts despite what was very obviously an amazing intellect. Xeno's training gave her an outlet for her energy, but she still had no idea how to socialize with her peers.

"But then, we discovered a crime being committed," she said intently, looking at Harry. "We discovered that a potential Sport was being starved and abused by Muggle relatives. We discovered this while researching what happened your first year, Harry, because of the appearance of Voldemort in wraith form. Previously Dumbledore assured the Ministry that you were perfectly safe, and was believed. Your condition, though, showed otherwise. Originally Xeno intended to contact you and pair you with Ginny after you completed your O.W.L.s. You would be nearly sixteen and Ginny would be fifteen, old enough for us to legally employ you, and also old enough that the pairing would have the desired effect."

"Desired effect?" Harry asked.

"The Department of Mysteries is not above nudging couples together," Raphaella admitted with a wry smile. "In some cases, it can produce remarkable results. The two of you have always been on the DoM books as a desirable pairing because of your power levels, and we had the benefit of that power actually working to pull you together. The arithmantic projections on you projected you would come together even without our interference."

"So that truth spell on the train during Ginny's second year?" Harry said.

"Was to cut you off from Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger," the healer admitted, "and give you one-on-one time with Ginny in an environment that not only encouraged, but actually forced you to confront your feelings toward each other. It was manipulative, I admit, but it worked brilliantly. You are so perfect for each other I can feel it in your magic, just sitting here."

"We are perfect for each other," Harry said.

"But now we come to Luna," Raphaella said. "Luna's condition is somewhat unique in the magical world. Here is a girl with an astounding intellect, easily genius level, but without any moral or social filters of any kind. In some ways she is like an innocent child—she would not hesitate to strip naked in the middle of Hogwarts if you asked, and would feel no shame doing so—as you might expect from a two-year-old. And equally, if you told her to murder a child, she would do so without a second thought, which is terrifying to think of. Now that she has become sexually aware, if she becomes aroused, she will similarly gratify that arousal without thought unless she is on a potion. It is likely that her admittedly powerful sexuality is overcompensation for her lack of normal emotions. The physical sensation is simply stronger than her ability to resist, and without a social or moral filter, she has no reason to try. Luna has told me that she has tried to get you into sexual situations."

Harry and Ginny nodded, though with blazing cheeks. "She doesn't wear a bra during training at school," Harry said. "And after, when were all dripping with sweat, she'll hug me, or snog me and rub against me."

Raphaella said, "Has she asked either of you to touch her in a sexual fashion?"

They both nodded, blushing furiously. "And have you? I ask without judgment, you two. There is no right and wrong, I just need to understand where we are at present."

"We haven't…done as much as she wants," Ginny said. "I let her snog Harry just because I'm still a little unsure about her kissing me, and she would. She doesn't care which of us she kisses. She's also tried to guide our hands to…places, but she'll stop when we tell her to."

Raphaella smiled gently, unconsciously sending out the gentle calming charm. "We call you Luna's social anchors, but to be more accurate, the plan was for you to act as an external social filter for Luna. If she could focus on you, it was our hope that she would emulate your actions. It has had some mixed results, from what we understand. On the one hand, she has not killed any classmates because she knows you two would not approve, save for the obvious and necessary exceptions. But she has not shown any improvement in terms of being able to socialize on her own. How does she get along with your friends?"

"Ron's terrified of her," Harry said.

"And Hermione fears her and feels a little pity for her too," Ginny said. "Luna scared Hermione off of Harry at the end of our second year. They get along a little better now just because they're both so smart. But I can't say they're friends."

"Does she have any friends besides the two of you?"

"No."

Raphaella nodded, obviously expecting the answer. "Harry, Ginny, I must say that I regret going along with this plan in many ways, but since I was the mental health professional, the blame rests squarely on my shoulders. We were hoping for short term results without looking at the long term aspects of Luna's sexual imprinting. It was…well, despite Xeno's joy that his daughter has you, as a professional this situation is exceedingly problematic. In a very real sense, Luna is a cancer on your relationship."

Harry and Ginny's hands crept into each other as they stared at the beautiful, concerned healer. "A cancer?" Harry asked.

"A healthy relationship is one of mutual dependence and trust. Not only does your partner depend on you, but you must also trust implicitly that you can depend on her. You and Ginny obviously trust each other and depend on each other. This is true whether it is a relationship of two or twenty. Unfortunately, you cannot depend on Luna emotionally. She depends on you both desperately, but she will never be able to return to you the type of love you feel for each other. She wants the two of you to have sex not because of any altruistic feelings for you, but because of her own fantasies and desire. I'm sure you've seen the picture on her ceiling?"

They nodded, blushing again. "So what do we do?" Ginny finally asked. "We can't just abandon her."

"In truth, Ginny, the two of you could; in fact, you should. You should walk away, and Xeno should admit the truth that his daughter will never be normal, and will never be safe for society at large. The only way I could save her would be a complete obliviation, and that will be devastating. It would reduce her to an infant state and it would take years for her to recover, and it would be a bittersweet recovery at best. The girl she was would be completely erased. Xeno is…not well suited to be a parent. As much as he is able, he loves Luna dearly. Obliviation therapy would break him, and most likely Luna would spend the rest of her life institutionalized. But it would be the best course of action for the two of you."

Harry looked up at Ginny and saw tears in her eyes. "You know we can't do that," he said, speaking for the two of them.

"I know," Raphaella said sadly. "The two of you are so…selfless. You think nothing of yourselves, only of others. It was the other reason we were so sure you would come to love each other so much—you each had an almost unlimited ability to love."

Raphaella stood, showing her first traces of nervousness. "Your own relationship has begun to develop and deepen—I can see it in your faces, and feel it in the way your magic meshes. You may soon decide to elevate your relationship to the next level and become intimate, if you have not already. Luna will profoundly complicate that."

"What should we do?" Harry asked.

"That's a tricky question for psychiatrists and mind healers alike," Raphaella said. "Rather than say what you should do, I can tell you some options. You can walk away. Xeno will accept it, frankly because he has no choice. There was no legitimate reason for us to involve you with Luna outside of the projections of your combined combat efficiency, nor can there be any consequence for you severing that connection. Another option is to continue as you are, keeping Luna as a friend but forcibly distancing her. I don't know if that will work since Luna will eventually interpret such action as rejection. And finally…finally…" She sighed and sat down. "Finally, you can let her become a part of your relationship. Again, this is not healthy since she cannot be an equal partner. But, if this is the route you go, then you must make sure that your own relationship comes first, and make sure Luna knows that. It is Ginny and Harry first and foremost, and you cannot allow Luna to come between you. She can be with you so long as you are comfortable, but never let her come between you. You should never be alone one-on-one with her, ever. Instead, if you engage her, do so as a couple. In fact, you must assume an almost parental role in her life. She may be your Control in operations, but doing this would require you to assert yourselves more actively in her personal life. Literally you will have to tell her how to live."

"Do you think…do you think it's wrong for us to be with her?" Ginny asked.

"Wrong? Oh Ginny, there is no right or wrong answer here. There are laws that say you cannot have three people in a marriage, but there are also laws granting civil rights to concubines. There is rarely an absolutely right or wrong answer in the adult world, to be honest. We just have to live life as best we can, and make the choices that are most right for us. But just know if you choose to make Luna a part of your relationship, she will continue to press for you to become intimate with her. She can't help it."

Harry was blushing again, from his eyebrows to his chin, his whole face was red. Raphaella gave a delighted laugh. "Oh Mr. Potter, you never thought you'd find yourself in a position like this, did you?"

"Er, no, not really."

"Ginny, how do you feel about Harry being intimate with Luna?"

Ginny too was blushing furiously. "I don't know," she admitted. "We…" She looked at Harry, and said, "I think she would just as soon shag me as Harry."

.

"Yes, Luna's sexuality is not gender oriented at all. She loves you as people, as much as she can love anyone, and her sexuality is oriented toward each of you. How do you feel, Ginny, about being intimate with Luna?"

Ginny shivered. "I don't think I'm as into it as she is. I don't want to do…well, I'm not sure I'd like to do what's in that picture. I don't mind kissing her that much, not really. I don't even think I would mind touching her that much if it made her happy, but I don't know about more than that."

Raphaella said, "And you, Harry?" She started laughing at Harry's nuclear blush. "Never mind: You're a boy, I understand."

"It's just…" Harry began, "I love her. I really do. But not like Ginny."

"That's exactly what I mean," Raphaella said. "You need to love Ginny first and foremost. You need to make sure your relationship with her is strong and secure, and only then should you try anything with Luna. And most importantly, let Luna know that. Let her know that you will…welcome her into your relationship, but only when you are sure it is strong enough to survive her presence intact."

This time, Harry's blush faded as he looked at his girlfriend. "There's no danger of it not surviving," he said softly. "Ginny is everything to me."

Raphaella reached across and took their hands. "And that is the only reason I'm not going to interfere any further. I can actually feel your bond through your joined magic…another aspect of my training. You truly are perfect for each other. And as long as you remember that, then your relationship can survive anything. Just be honest. Ginny, if the thought of Harry and Luna bothers you, then you need to tell Harry, and we'll take steps. Harry, if the thought of…never mind."

Harry laughed nervously, as did Ginny. "I've seen them kiss," he said. "It bothered me, but not in a bad way."

Finally, the healer gave them a muggle style business card. "I want you to Floo me or contact me through Xeno any time you have any concerns, either with Luna or each other."

"We will," Ginny said as she accepted the card. "Thank you, Raphaella."

"Well, it was a pleasure talking to you. Best wishes to you both."

When she was gone, Harry and Ginny remained on the sofa, holding hands and thinking furiously. "Next term, we talk to her about it?" Ginny asked.

"Yeah, I don't think I could handle it during the holidays."

"Good." And with that, they were decided.

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading! All three made some very good suggestions for this chapter.


	44. Management of Three

**Author's Not**e: Continuing the themes from last chapter, there is again a frank discussion of sex in this chapter. That said, I have no intention of writing lemons. There is also a brief moment of graphic hyper-violence and a cliff hanger that may make you want to hit something. Had to be done, sorry.

* * *

**Chapter Forty-Four: Management of Three**

Christmas Day dawned over a new snow that transformed Ottery St. Catchpole into a magical place. Harry, of course, wouldn't realize that since he was sleeping late. The twins crept up the stairs with the intent of giving him a shocking wake-up call, until Ron emerged from his own room and saw them.

"Don't do it," he warned.

"We won't hurt him," George said.

"Much," Fred added.

"I'm not worried about him," Ron said. "Think how it'd make mum feel having to take you two into St. Mungo's on Christmas morning 'cause you were daft enough to try and prank Harry Potter."

As the twins stopped to consider the truth of that statement, Ron walked across the narrow hall and knocked on Harry's door. "Happy Christmas, Potter, get your lazy arse out of bed." A moment later, he added, "…And my sister better not be in there."

"Bugger off, Ron!" came Ginny's voice from a safe distance down the stairs.

It was immediately followed by their mum's voice, "Ginny! Language."

"Sorry mum."

A moment later Harry opened the door in nothing but his pyjama bottoms and his glasses. "What?" he asked, still half asleep.

"Blimey, Harry," Fred said. "No wonder Gin-Gin can't keep her hands off you! Even I'm getting hot and bothered."

George reached forward to thump Harry's abdomen. "Right lovely specimen he is. Fancy a kiss, lover boy?"

"Sod off," Harry said, though he laughed as he said it. He left the door open and walked into his room long enough to throw on a shirt.

As Harry settled in beside Ginny around the tree, he realized it was his very first Christmas at the Burrow. Percy had returned, alone this time so his girlfriend could spend the holiday with her family, but both Bill and Charlie were unable to come to the Burrow because of work. Even with them missing, though, it was a full house. Between Percy, Ron, the twins and Harry, five boys were there, with Ginny serving as the sole female besides her mother. It made for a loud, boisterous holiday as they exchanged gifts.

Harry's gifts to his friends he had shipped by owl, with more than a few suggestions coming from Ginny over what he should get whom. Likewise, his friends had sent his gifts by owl as well, meaning he ended up getting nearly as many gifts as everyone else at the Burrow.

When the twins started opening a red envelope, Harry reached over and took Ginny's hands. "Watch this," he whispered.

The twins stared at the envelope's contents with wide eyes a moment before looking up at Harry, then to their father.

"Yes, boys, it's real," Arthur said. "Harry and I drafted the papers at Gringotts. Those papers will form your company, let you start up a business vault, and make Harry an equal but silent partner in your shop, for an initial investment of one thousand galleons. If you agree, sign the contract and it will be effective. In addition, I am willing to take a loan out to help you as well, but only on one condition."

"You boys better finish school first!" Molly said.

Of course, the fact that the twins were already half-way through their Seventh Year made the warning less vehement. "Brilliant!" the two said, as each took the quill that came with the contract and signed, one after the other.

The breakfast that followed was as good as anything Harry ever had at Hogwarts, and by the time he was done he could barely walk. "Good thing we're not training today," he said to Ginny.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The next day, Harry and Ginny visited the Tonks home with Arthur. Tonks herself was up and moving around as if nothing had happened, though she was still on medical leave until the end of the holidays. Remus was out that day, which allowed Harry a long, comfortable visit with Sirius's cousin.

"Harry," Andromeda asked, "have you given any thought to Grimmauld Place?"

"Honestly, no," Harry admitted.

So, naturally, after his visit with Tonks, he, Ginny and Arthur Floo'd to Grimmauld Place. "After all," Arthur said, "it's your house."

When they arrived, they found Number 12 Grimmauld Place to be dusty and unkempt, but still a thousand times better than when he and Sirius first started cleaning and redecorating the place. However, the sheer amount of dust bothered Harry. He knew Kreacher was dead, but he didn't think things would get bad so quickly.

However, something else caught his attention. It was a slight pull, so slight he would never have noticed it save for additional training and awareness of his adult magic. With the pull came a growing feeling of dread.

"What is it, Harry?" Ginny asked, picking up on his feeling.

"There's something dark in here," he said. "It's pulling at my scar hurt."

He followed the pull up the stairs, until they found a small alcove in the hallway filled with old, lice-ridden blankets and tea towels. It was obviously where Kreacher had lived. This close, the pull became a stab. "Ginny, it feels just like the diary!"

"Diary?" Arthur asked. "What diary?"

While Ginny explained about the diary that helped Adonis and Zeus uncover the method that Voldemort used to stay alive, Harry leaned into the alcove and levitated the detritus. Underneath, he saw a golden locket that seemed almost to glow with black power—he had no doubt he was staring at a Horcrux.

"I'm going to fetch Adonis," Ginny said with a gasp when he pulled it out and she could feel it as well.

Arthur stood with a pensive expression on his face. "Harry, why wasn't I ever told about these Horcruxes?"

"I don't know, sir," he said. "Honestly, with everything else that's been happening, I sort of forgot about it. Stupid of me, really. I found out second year that I _am_ a Horcrux."

Arthur knelt down, gasping as if struck. "What is that, Harry?"

Harry looked at his guardian and smiled wryly. "This scar, sir. It holds a piece of Voldemort's soul in it. That was why Dumbledore did everything he did to me—he knows I have to die before Voldemort can truly be destroyed."

Arthur fell all the way back at his haunches, staring at Harry in horror, and did not move again until Adonis rushed into the room in his cloak, but with his cowl pulled down. "Harry, is it true?"

Harry held up the locket and Adonis quickly began casting diagnostic spells on it, before removing a lead box from his robes. "Put it in, Harry."

The dark tingle of evil disappeared the moment Adonis closed the enchanted container. "Well, that's a problem," the older Unspeakable muttered.

"Why wasn't I informed of these bloody things?" Arthur said, his shock shifting quickly to anger. "Or that Harry had one inside him? Why are you allowing that thing to stay there? Why hasn't the whole department worked to pull it out of him?"

"Mr. Weasley," Adonis said coolly, "what do you think we've been researching for the past three years? The moment we identified the Horcrux in Harry, we started working on methods to destroy it without harming him. This, actually, will give us additional chances to study different removal techniques. However, this is problematic because it proves Voldemort has more vessels than we originally thought."

"What?" Harry asked.

"Harry, we originally thought he had a thrice-sectioned soul—the Diary, you and the fragment that remained. But this…this proves there are more than three fragments, and the next arithmantically meaningful number is seven. Any lesser number would be magically unstable, and Voldemort knows that better than most. It means that we have at least three more Horcruxes to find, and that is a problem."

Adonis slipped the lead box back into his pocket. "Harry, I assure you that no one has forgotten about what you carry within you, and we will not stop until we discover a safe means of removing it. But in the meantime there are things we can do, and finding these other Horcruxes is at the top of the list. If you sense any more, Harry, let me or Zeus know immediately."

"We will," Harry promised.

After he left, Arthur climbed slowly back to his feet, watching Harry and Ginny intently. Finally, he reached out, took Harry by the shoulders and pulled the startled boy into a tight embrace. "We will work this out together, Harry," he said. "You're family, now, and we _will_ find a solution to this."

Harry appeared stunned, but smiling as well. Beside him, Ginny took his hand. "Thank you, sir," the boy said. "Sometimes I think I can do anything, if my friends are with me."

"And we are, Harry," Arthur said. "Never forget that."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The train ride back to Hogwarts was an enjoyable time. Hermione beamed at everyone, going so far to give Ron a good snogging when she met him. "The Ministry was brilliant," she explained. "They worked with the Australian Ministry. Mum and Dad already have their new practice set up under a different name, and they're really happy. They were able to sell their old practice and use the money to buy a home near the beach in Sydney. They've always wanted to live near the ocean!"

The happy mood from the holidays lasted until Harry and Ginny saw Minerva McGonagall standing at the entrance of the castle, her face stony. "Mr. Potter, Miss Weasley, a word please?" she asked as the two passed by.

"Yes, Professor?" Ginny asked.

"Professor Dumbledore wishes you to go right to his office. The feast won't start for a while so you have time. Hurry, now, it is important."

"Okay, thank you," Harry said.

When they arrived, they saw Dumbledore there with a dark-skinned wizard in Ministry robes. The old Headmaster looked positively skeletal, and all hint of the twinkle was gone from his drawn blue eyes. "Harry, Ginny," he said, "this is Devon Williamson, head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

"Mr. Williamson," Harry said.

"Sir," Ginny said. "I've heard father say good things about you."

"Nice to hear, given as Senior Undersecretary he's my boss," Devon said with a casual smile, which lasted only a moment. "I can only stay a moment, but the Minister asked that I speak to you both personally. Draco Malfoy and his friends are returning to school today."

Ginny took Harry's hand. "Why?" Harry demanded, not bothering to hide his anger.

"Snape claimed he had them all under the _Imperius_ Curse," Williamson said. "We did not have any grounds to expel them after that."

"Rest assured that he and all his classmates are on probation," Dumbledore said. "At the slightest provocation, his wand will be snapped and he will be permanently removed from the castle."

"What about Daphne Greengrass?" Harry asked.

"I've assigned an Auror for her protection," Williamson said. "The Minister's niece Susan is also returning today, and will have her own Auror detail. Your help in protecting her will be appreciated."

"We are speaking to you personally, Harry, to ask your patience," Dumbledore said. "While Draco's position is uncertain, his youth makes any action taken against him problematic. If you were to precipitate a confrontation, it is possible sympathy might fall to him in the Wizengamot, which would weaken your side considerably. I am asking for restraint."

"I'll do my part," Harry promised.

"I'm sure you will," Dumbledore said, "but will Ms. Lovegood?"

"We'll speak to her tonight," Ginny promised.

"Very well," Dumbledore said. "I know this is frustrating for you, Harry. But this time, I promise it is not my personal machinations at work. Minister Bones wanted him tried very badly, but Severus's testimony was devastating. There is nothing we can do until he acts."

"Which, knowing him, won't be much longer," Harry said darkly. "Thank you for telling us, Mr. Williamson, and you as well, Headmaster. We appreciate it."

Indeed, when they made it to the Great Hall, Draco Malfoy was sitting at a quiet Slytherin Table, while the rest of the school openly glared. The moment they walked in, Ginny walked quickly to the Ravenclaw Table. Luna sat a little apart from the other Ravenclaws, as was normal, but was also playing with a table knife from her flatware, twirling it about her fingers in a flashing, intricate pattern while staring at Malfoy with a completely blank expression.

"Luna," Ginny said, taking the smaller girl by the shoulders, "why don't you come and sit with Harry and me?"

"I can see Malfoy better from here," Luna said clearly without looking away from the Slytherin. Around them, the other Ravenclaws looked nervous and a bit wide-eyed, as if somehow sensing the danger in this girl's presence.

"Luna," Ginny said, whispering into her ear, "Harry and I have something very important to tell you tomorrow after the feast. For now, we _both_ want you with us. Do you understand?"

The knife clattered to the table where Luna dropped it. Without changing expression, she turned her head and stared. "Both of you?"

"Tomorrow, after the feast, we'll talk," Ginny said. "For now, we want you with us. The Professors won't mind if you sit with us."

With that last exchange, Luna stood up and let Ginny guide her by the hand as if she were a child across the floor to the Gryffindor table. Harry scooted over to make room for her, and the petite blonde slid into a seat between Harry and Ginny, looking from one to the other with a strangely hopeful expression that left Hermione, Ron and their other friends a little confused. Since when did Luna pull calf eyes?

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

As much as Harry and Ginny wanted to get the Talk over, the first night back from holidays was just too hectic. Instead, they returned to their dorm with the rest of their housemates to sort out their school trunks and their homework. Harry and Ginny were taking four courses—Potions, Care of Magical Creatures, Arithmancy and Runes, however the latter two were exceedingly difficult no matter how much extra training they had.

The night after the holidays was when Hermione shone—she set up her throne by the large study table in the common room, and then held court, helping people with their last minute homework, or explaining problems they didn't understand during their holiday assignments. Harry and Ginny did not hesitate at all to request her review of their Arithmancy homework, and she beamed happily at them to do just that.

The first day of classes for their second term, though, seemed nearly empty. They had potions in the morning with Slughorn, and that afternoon Arithmancy, and that was it for their day. They spent the rest of the day talking about the possible defence club Harry wanted to establish for their friends, including drawing up some possible lesson plans.

Finally, their day ended and they ate dinner, with Luna once more sitting by them. When the meal ended, Harry and Ginny each took one of the girl's hands and said, "Meet us in the Room of Requirement."

Half an hour later, the three of them entered the room together, and found nothing waiting for them but a love seat and a stuffed chair, facing each other, in front of a small fireplace. "Okay, Luna, sit down," Ginny said.

Luna, her face blank, sat down on the chair while Harry and Ginny sat on the loveseat facing her. Suddenly, facing the girl, Harry found himself unable to think of what to say, and when he looked at Ginny he saw she was just as stuck as he was.

It was Luna who finally spoke. "Have you had sex?"

It was so perfectly Luna that it was exactly what they needed. "No," Ginny said, "not yet. But…we've been thinking about it. And you too."

Luna leaned forward, her eyes gleaming in the firelight. "Really?" she said breathily.

Harry and Ginny shared a long look over their friend's head. Raphaella's words hung heavily between them. It was Ginny who finally whispered, "In for a Knut, in for a Galleon."

"You sure?" Harry asked.

Ginny nodded and squeezed his knee. "Anyone else, Potter, and I will hex your bits off."

With that, Harry slid out of the loveseat onto one knee, coming eye-level with Luna in the process. "We've decided that, when we do go to that level, you'll be a part of our relationship," Harry told the blond. He leaned forward and kissed her, initiating a kiss with her for the first time.

He parted as Ginny came beside him, and did the same. Luna stared at the two of them, tears running down her face despite her not expressing any emotion at all.

"I did wonder," she finally said. "I hoped, but I wondered if you would. I know I should not. It is not fair to you for me to doubt you. But no matter how I tried, you wouldn't touch me, so I thought perhaps I was too hideous for you and the potions made you not want to…"

Harry stopped her with another short kiss. "But Luna, we need you to understand something very important: Ground rules. Can you accept that?"

"Anything," Luna said, her eyes lidded.

"First, Harry and I will be a couple. Maybe, someday, we'll even be married. He will be my boyfriend first, and I will be his girlfriend first. We must take precedence for each other."

"I agree," Luna said quickly.

"Two," Ginny continued, "I may not wish to do everything you've imagined. While I care for you deeply, Luna, I don't feel the same physical urges toward you as I do Harry."

"Oh, I know you are not bisexual," Luna said. "The fact you allow me to kiss you at all is quite a wonderful gesture."

That caught Ginny by surprise. She had to remind herself that it was Luna's moral and social filters that were broken, not her intellect. "Well, that painting on your ceiling…I just want you to know I don't think I could do that."

"Do you think Harry could?" Luna asked quickly.

"I reckon I've never tried," Harry muttered, flushing a little at the thought. "Seems a bit gross, but I've heard my dorm mates talk about it. They seem to like it."

"We are talking about oral sex, are we not? Cunnilingus and fellatio?" Luna clarified.

"Er, yeah, suppose so."

Luna nodded happily. "That would be quite lovely if you were willing to try that, Harry. I would be more than happy to try on you."

"At our own speed," Ginny said quickly before the discussion got out of hand.

Luna nodded immediately.

"Finally," Ginny said, "Harry and I are going to need time to ourselves, Luna. We spoke to Healer Richardson and she stressed that we need to be a couple first if this relationship with you is going to work. So if we need to be alone, please don't be hurt or think we are rejecting you. I promise we're not. Know that we're strengthening our own bonds to make sure that there is enough room and love for you as well."

Luna's eyes poured a solid rivulet of tears, though again there was no sign of it in her voice. "That is most acceptable," she whispered. "Most acceptable indeed. Seeing you here together touching each other, beside me…" She closed her eyes. "So beautiful. Would you…touch me, Harry? Before we sleep?"

The fact she even asked was improvement, really.

Half an hour later, Luna was virtually dancing around the room, her cheeks flushed, her hair dishevelled, and the most beatific smile on her face they had ever seen. Harry and Ginny followed her, holding hands and smiling at their friend's sheer happiness. It was the first time either had seen Luna act genuinely, truly happy, and it felt as if a sun had risen for them all.

As the door opened, Luna gave each of them a long hug and kiss. "Thank you. You make me happy. Thank you for being my friends. I'm going to have fun with my wand tonight. See you tomorrow."

It was all going so perfect; Harry should have known it would end badly. He watched it crash down when Luna opened the door and they heard a voice shout "_Aesuomk'ak Aep T'akh!" _just as a splash of dark purple light struck Luna.

Luna made a strange "Oh!" sound a second before her stomach exploded in a shower of entrails that covered the floor. Harry and Ginny were both so shocked they could not even move at first, watching helplessly as Luna collapsed to her knees and tried to hold her own stomach inside her body.

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading! All three made some very good suggestions for this chapter.


	45. No Fate But What He Makes

A/N: Chapt 44 review response are available in my forums. And now, In recognition of the season, the previous cliffhanger, and the fact that I won't have time on my normal posting day, I give you this chapter a day early. While it may not be the best thing I've ever written, I feel very happy with this chapter. I hope you enjoy it as well.

And finally, I give you my deepest wishes for a safe and happy holiday season.

* * *

**Chapter Forty-Five: No Fate But What He Makes**

On the first night of the term, immediately after the welcoming feast, Draco Malfoy very quietly, and with a minimum of fanfare, stepped into the Slytherin Common Room.

The room was rarely empty since there were no other parts of the castle where Slytherins could comfortably gather without attracting unwanted attention. The common room in the dungeons was in fact the largest of all the four houses for that very reason. Even from the very beginning of the house system, Slytherin, Greatest of the Founding Four, knew that his house would be a school unto itself.

Though he did not say anything as he stepped through, nonetheless every person in the room looked up. Conversations died until the only sound was the constant crackle of the fire. Draco stood just on the inside of the door slowly dragging his glacial eyes across every face there.

In his mind, he saw himself through their eyes as a tall, mysterious figure tested by darkness; with knowledge of the bad things in life none of them could ever imagine. In reality what his housemates saw was a pale boy with a tired, worn face, dark rings under his eyes, and stress lines around his mouth that in someone so young looked oddly wrong.

"So they let you off?" Spencer, the seventh year prefect said. "What about Snape?"

"He's dead," Draco said. He meant to speak in his coldest, darkest voice. Instead, his voice squeaked a little. Draco frowned at the discordant sound. "The Ministry killed him without trial."

"How the hell would you know that?" Pucey, a sixth year, said.

"The Dark Lord told me," Draco replied.

At last he got the response he wanted, as every pair of eyes in the room bulged in shock at that revelation. Once he knew he had their attention, he said, "The first through third years should leave. Fourth years should think about it too."

He might as well have screamed "FIRE!" for all the speed the younger kids used in gathering their books, throwing them into their satchels, and fleeing from the common rooms. Draco noticed every one of the fourth years went with the younger kids as well, and snorted in disdain. He would not have run away as a fourth year.

"Spencer," Draco said to the seventh year prefect, "lock them in."

With a shrug, the tall, lanky brunette did as he was told, disappearing through the hall for a few moments before returning with a nod.

"Anyone else, this is your chance to leave," Draco said. "If you report anything you're about to hear, you'll be dead within a year, and so will your families. If you stay, you're with us—all the way with us."

Blaise Zabini stood. "I'm under family orders to remain neutral, but what happens in the house stays in the house. I'll be silent, as will those who join me."

Draco merely nodded as more than half those there stood and filed out in silence until Zabini was the last. He noticed Tracey Davis leave with Zabini, but said nothing. The other Fifth Year nodded to his remaining housemates until he left and closed the door to the dorms behind him. Spencer sealed that door as well.

When they were gone, Draco slipped off his school robe to show the silk slacks and shirt below and slowly unbuttoned the cuff of his left sleeve, until he revealed the skull and snake tattoo writhing on his skin. "You know what this means."

Those that remained, perhaps fifteen people in all, quietly nodded. Every one there was the child of a known Death Eater. They knew very well what it meant.

"Did it hurt?" Crabbe asked at last.

"Yes," Draco confirmed, irritated that his voice cracked yet again.

"You have a task, then?" Nott said. His father was the only Death Eater not to bear a mark, since he maintained a seat in the Wizengamot.

"Two," Draco said. "First, we clean up our mess. The Dark Lord will not abide betrayal. And second, we kill Potter."

"You mean Greengrass?" Pansy Parkinson said.

"I failed to kill her before," Draco admitted. "I will not fail again."

The other students understood what his pride would not let him say—that he _could not_ fail again. Even failing the Dark Lord once was, often times, worth one's life. A second failure was a certain death sentence. "The time is now," Draco said. "Dumbledore is living under a death sentence. Snape poisoned him and there is no cure. And I know where Potter trains. It's a special room on the seventh floor our Head of House showed me before the attack. The room can be anything you need. After we take care of Greengrass, we're going to kill Potter and his whores. Anyone who joins me in this is guaranteed a place by the Dark Lord's side. You won't need to worry about OWLs or NEWTs under the New Order."

"You know we'll be with you," Crabbe said. "We owe it to Potter for all he's done to us."

"Yes, you do. Who else?"

"I'm in," Nott said.

Pansy smiled. "Anything to see that Weasley slut dead."

That night, while his classmates pondered what it would be like living as the favored class in the new order, Draco lay awake, staring at the canopy on his bed. He had the curtains pulled tight and sealed with a spell so no one could see him crying.

The Dark Mark had hurt, worse than anything he'd ever imagined, but that was nothing compared to the feeling of the Dark Lord raping his mind. He knelt there in his parents' ballroom, like a slave to a king, while his own parents stood watching off to the side, and had to grovel and beg this non-human thing to let him live after failing to kill Greengrass.

Draco did not feel proud of bearing the Dark Mark. He felt absolute, unbearable rage. He could not understand how his parents could subjugate themselves like chattel to that…monster. He just could not understand.

What he did understand, though, was that he had no choice. Being who he was, born to whom he was born, left him no other choice than to be what he was: a slave to the Dark Lord, just like his parents. And so Draco Malfoy lay in bed, weeping, while his housemates planned the capture and murder of a girl he'd fancied since he was a little boy.

They caught Daphne the next day right after her last class of the afternoon. All the Slytherins, even the younger years, were under orders to watch for the traitor. It was a third year girl who reported that she'd gone to the second floor girl's lavatory alone after ditching her Auror escort.

Draco waited in the dorm room when Pansy, Millicent Bulstrode, and two sixth year witches, Whitehall and Starling, levitated the stunned fifteen-year-old witch back into the common room under a disillusionment spell. They took her to Draco's dorm room and sealed the door, leaving just Draco, Nott, Crabbe, Goyle, Bulstrode and Parkinson in the room.

With a _Finite_, Greengrass woke with a terrified scream, and then whimpered and crawled back against the furthest wall when she saw where she was and with whom. "Did you think you could get away?" Draco asked irritated again at how his voice broke when he tried to sound threatening.

"Please," Daphne whispered. "Please."

"What are we going to do to her?" Goyle said. Draco could hear eagerness in the boy's voice, but Goyle was not eager just to kill her. Greengrass was a beautiful girl, even with her face swollen with tears and glistening with snot, and Crabbe and Goyle both never had a chance with anyone of her class. He remembered how Lovegood looked years ago, and felt a sudden, intense desire to see Greengrass naked.

But he knew if he did that—if he played with her like that or allowed the others to use her like that, he would never be able to finish his task. The truth was he'd harbored feelings for Daphne since before they even began Hogwarts. Parkinson was his constant companion, but he wished deeply that it could be Daphne. Even her sister was beautiful. But always Daphne brushed him off and dismissed him like he didn't matter, as if a Malfoy would ever be anything less than important. The very idea was ludicrous and infuriating.

He grabbed onto that anger, cradling it as if it were the most precious gift ever. This blubbering, begging girl thought the name of Malfoy was nothing. She thought he wasn't worth her affections, even though he'd had Pansy several times, and pleased her immensely. How dare this…this…_cow_ shun his affections? _His_?

"Please don't hurt Astoria," Daphne begged. "It's not her fault."

She was even selfless, just like Potter. She was begging for someone else's life instead of hers. Just like Potter.

At last the anger burned bright white inside him, and Draco knew for a certainty that he could do what needed to be done. She was still blubbering there, begging for them not to hurt her sister, when Draco raised his wand and shouted with all the rage he had ever felt, "_Avada Kedavra!_"

There was a moment of shocked understanding on Daphne's face; a moment when she knew with bone-deep certainty that she was going to die, right before the curse ripped the life from her eyes. She slumped over to the floor, her eyes open and unseeing. A moment later, her bladder relaxed and urine seeped onto the floor behind her, soaking the skirt of her uniform.

As the magic left his body, Draco felt suddenly light and weak. He fell to his knees and coughed. He reached up and wiped his eyes, sure it was the magic that made him weep.

"You did it," Nott said quietly, in awe.

"I had no choice," Draco said, voice no longer cracking. "Her fate was sealed the moment she went to Potter."

"What do we do now?" Pansy said, her face caught in an expression of morbid fascination.

"We transfigure the body into something small and easy to hide, and then throw it in the common room fireplace. And then tonight, we kill Potter." Draco forced himself to his feet. Looking down at the girl he had once desired, and now killed, he felt suddenly, inexplicably powerful. He finally understood his father and the other Death Eaters; he understood Voldemort himself. He still hated the idea of subjugating himself, but he understood why now.

This was power, and after the shock began to wear off, he realized it tasted sweet.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Draco was the one who saw them first, walking together and talking happily together. He squatted down in a corner across from the Room of Requirement, disillusioned with a spell that Voldemort himself showed him to hide his magical signature, as well as a silencing spell, and waited. His co-conspirators, fifteen in all, hid on the far side of the hall.

He stared at the three of them intently, watching especially Weasley and Potter. He saw how close they walked together; how they occasionally bumped into each other while holding hands. Potter reached up as they walked and rubbed her back, and twice brushed a hand against her hip. It was not a self-conscious movement, but rather completely natural and free. Draco had seen his parents touch like that when they thought they were alone, before Potter's supporters sent his father to prison.

Staring at them now, he had no doubt that Potter and Weasley were shagging, or close to it. Insane jealously bloomed in his mind—not that the two were shagging, but that Potter was shagging the girl he wanted, while Draco had to kill his. It was typical of Potter—always getting everything he wanted.

He never stopped to consider how his father bought his place onto the Quidditch Team, or how his Prefect Badge was paid for by his mother. All he saw was Potter with a relationship that Draco wanted, but could never have.

They walked into the room and the doors sealed again. Draco cancelled his silencing and disillusionment spells and summoned his classmates. "They will probably be a couple of hours," Draco said. "We'll only have a few minutes of warning before the door opens, so be wary."

He placed the sixth and half the seventh years on the left side of the room, and he and his fellow fifth years with the other seven years on the right, both groups spread out to form an effective crossfire. After that, it was simply a matter of waiting.

It was a grinding sound that warned them after only thirty minutes, instead of the hours Draco had initially anticipated. The wall creaked, groaned more, and then shifted as it spread apart until a large wooden door opened. Draco knelt down and lifted his wand, as did all his housemates. He did not just want to kill Potter, he wanted to hurt him.

He knew just the curse. It was one Snape made him practice for days at the beginning of the first term, when he told Draco what they would be doing to Potter in his class. He saw a silhouette of someone leaving the room, aimed, and shouted, "_Aesuomk'ak Aep T'akh!"_

Draco blinked in disbelief when he saw the curse strike not Potter, but the Lovegood girl. Her surprised expression looked almost comical as her intestines exploded in a shower of gore over the floor. She collapsed to her knees while her hands clutched at the bulbous organ that almost certainly was her stomach, since her intestines covered the floor.

Draco heard the Weasley girl shout "_Silens existo!_" at Lovegood while the other Slytherins opened fire. Draco himself took aim at Weasley, just visible around the corner of the door, when a blur blasted out of the room.

Draco shifted his aim, trying to follow the figure. It was Potter, his face warped by a rage Draco had never seen, and the air around him shivering in living magic. He flew head-first as if shot from a cannon, and landed somehow in a roll that brought him to his feet.

Potter raised his wand and made a broad slashing motion; Draco raised a _Protego_ shield against whatever Potter was doing, but was unprepared for the sheer power of the broad banishing charm Potter unleashed.

Even shielded, the force of it threw Draco back and broke his shield. The Slytherins who did not shield were tossed against distant walls like so many rag dolls, while those like Draco who did fell back off their feet.

Draco picked himself up just in time to see a shower of foot-long metal spikes shoot into Crabbe. Draco's constant companion for the past five years made a bloody, gurgling groan as he looked down into his chest, before collapsing to the floor. Pansy Parkinson shouted a killing curse, but before she could even finish enunciating it she screamed as an unseen force gripped her and threw her across the room. Draco could only stare in shock as she slammed into a column on the far side of the room easily twenty feet off the floor. She struck so hard Draco could hear the sound of her bones breaking, and she did not make any sound as she fell the twenty feet to the floor. She did not bounce at all, meaning her magic could no longer protect her.

Potter moved faster than Draco could fully understand, spinning around and between Slytherin curses. Weasley too knelt down shielding Lovegood while casting lethal curses at Draco's classmates with frightening ease—she did not hesitate or even stir herself to rage—she had a cold expression as she cast. Crabbe screamed; Draco turned just in time to see the boy's skull shatter, badly distorting the shape of his head and killing him instantly as the shattered bone liquefied his brain.

Time slowed as Draco Malfoy watched his force of fifteen classmates, boys and girls he had grown up with but never really liked, fall like so many chess pieces before an opposing master.

Suddenly they were gone, and only Draco remained. Potter stood in the center of the battlefield, breathing hard but controlled breaths and staring death at Draco. Draco understood something else, then. He understood that whatever power he tasted before, Potter had more. Much, much more.

He began to back away as Potter walked toward him, and shouted out, "_Avada kadabra!"_ He mispronounced it and his hands shook violently as Potter continued walking toward him, his brows like an approaching thunderstorm.

"_Avada kedabra!" _Draco kept trying and failing to pronounce the killing curse as Harry approached, shaking even more violently as he saw his own death approaching. He wondered if this is what Daphne felt like, right before he killed her.

Harry stopped, completely unconcerned about Malfoy's attempts to cast the killing curse. "I hate you!" Malfoy finally screamed. "I hate you!"

"You don't matter," Harry said coldly.

"I _do_ matter!" Malfoy screamed. "_I matter_! I'm Draco Malfoy! I matter."

"No, you don't," Harry said emotionlessly. "You never did. You're nothing but an insect, Malfoy. And after I kill you, no one is going to care—no one at all."

"I hate you!" Draco screamed again. He raised his wand again, grabbing hold of his own hatred. He knew he could cast the killing curse this time, but never had a chance. In a sickening repeat of his last encounter, Draco could only stare as Potter grabbed his wand hand and snapped his arm like a twig, before ripping the wand from his now numb fingers. His last thought was to curse not Potter or even his parents, but Voldemort for putting him in this position, before Potter shoved the wand right into his eye and cried out: "_Bombarda_!"

Harry stepped back from the bloody stump that once held Malfoy's head before he turned and surveyed the hall. The other Slytherins were almost certainly dead; if not they would be soon. "How is she?" he called to Ginny.

"I don't know!" Ginny cried. "Oh Merlin, Harry, she's hurt so bad! What do we do?"

Thankfully, Professor McGonagall arrived, trailed moments later by Greengrass's tardy Auror escort and a panting, exhausted Dumbledore. He heard McGonagall shriek when she saw the mess that was Malfoy and the bodies littering the hall, but then they saw Harry and Ginny kneeling on either side of the carnage that was one Luna Lovegood.

"We need Madame Pomfrey!" Ginny shouted. "We need her now!"

Harry, meanwhile, walked to the pale Dumbledore. "You let Malfoy return," Harry said in a low dangerous voice. "Where's Daphne, Headmaster? Where is she?"

"We don't know," the Auror answered shamefacedly.

"Then she's dead," Harry snarled. "All this happened because you let Malfoy back in."

"We couldn't stop him," Dumbledore said sadly. "We told you, Harry, last night. We had no just cause."

"You had every cause—you've had years of just cause. And this is what happens when supposedly good men do nothing. Congratulations, Headmaster. Your plan to save lives is going just swimmingly!"

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Harry and Ginny sat in a small waiting room in St. Mungo's. Mr Weasley was there with them, as well as a pale, bleary-eyed Xenophilius Lovegood. Adonis had just left with Harry and Ginny's memories of the attack so that he could deal with the D.M.L.E. directly.

At first, Ginny tried to sit beside Harry, but as the memories kept welling up in her mind, she finally gave up on all hint of propriety and ended up on his lap, her head in his shoulder. They were into their fourth hour of Luna's healing ritual. Unlike Tonks, this was not a case of power and Runestones. If she were muggle, she would have already been dead, but Ginny's stasis spell was just enough to give her a chance once they got her to the hospital by Floo.

"She was so happy," Ginny finally whispered.

"What was that?" Both of them looked up to see Xenophilius staring at them intently.

"She was happy, sir," Ginny said. "About us."

The conversation made Arthur close his eyes in frustration.

Two hours later, a tall witch in white robes walked into the room. Her hair was pulled back in a severe bun covered by a plastic muggle surgical cap. She had a wand tucked into the breast pocket of her robes, and looked almost like a muggle physician.

"Mr Lovegood, I'm Healer Lepsis. I was the lead healer for Luna."

"Yes," Xenophilius said. "Is she…?"

The healer smiled gently and sat down. "She's going to make it. Whoever put the stasis spell on her saved her life. The spell prevented any sepsis or infection from taking hold and reduced the blood loss to a minimum. We were able to salvage all but a few feet of her intestine, and sealed it sufficiently that it should have no impact on her lifestyle. She will be on an extensive potion regimen for the next three months, and for the next week she will not be able to eat any solid food at all, but we'll be keeping her here that week regardless."

"Is she awake?"

The healer shook her head. "No, I should be very surprised if she wakes up anytime in the next two days. With injuries as severe and traumatic as she experienced, magic turns inward to accelerate the healing process. In fact, we're counting on that. The potions are less to heal her and more to direct her magic on where to heal most efficiently. She will likely wake sometime late tomorrow, or even the day after."

"Please have a bed prepared for me," Xenophilius said. "I will be staying with her."

"Of course, sir."

"And thank you, Healer Lepsis. Thank you for saving my little girl."

"You're very welcome, sir. If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask."

The healer left the room quietly. As she did so, Xenophilius pushed himself up from his chair, cross the room and then wrapped Ginny in a deep hug. "Thank you too, Ginny. Thank you for saving her."

And with that Xenophilius Lovegood left to go be with his daughter, while Ginny, Harry and Arthur headed back to Hogwarts. The appeared an hour later in a flash of green fire in the Headmaster's office. He nodded to Dumbledore and then returned his attention to the two kids. Harry noted with some surprise that he could look the Weasley patriarch in the eyes now.

"I'm so sorry this happened," the Weasley patriarch said. "Brace yourselves, this isn't over yet. But know we're with you." Arthur smiled sadly at them, gave them each a hug, and then left via the Floo.

"Mr Potter," Dumbledore said after Arthur was gone, "despite the late hour I would like you to join me for a cleansing ritual tonight," the headmaster said. "Ms Weasley is welcome to join as well. And we need to do it quickly, Harry, because I can feel the darkness in your magic even as we speak. While most of those students you killed in fair combat, what you did to Mr Malfoy, regardless of your motivation, was not self-defence. It was a cold-blooded execution."

Harry choked on his rage until Ginny squeezed his hand. "He's right, Harry," she said softly. "I can feel it in you."

"Fine," Harry said, surprised himself at how angry the idea made him feel.

* * *

sp

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading! All three made some very good suggestions for this chapter.


	46. Tainted

A/N: Chapter Forty-Five review responses are available in my forums. Thank you.

* * *

**Chapter Forty-Six: Tainted**

The Headmaster's ritual chamber was not large, but it was well-wrought, with the finest Italian marble on the floor and walls, as opposed to plain granite used in the Department of Mysteries ritual chamber. There were no windows, of course, and the only decorations were the intricately carved Runic Circle on the floor.

There were six smaller circles set evenly around a larger seventh circle in the middle, each connected by lines of inlaid quartz and gold. It was designed in such a way that a lone user could sit in the middle, or any combination of up to seven could form a symmetrical shape. With the three of them including Ginny, they formed a triangle. The Department ritual chamber, on the other hand, was simply composed of six circles themselves forming the seventh, without any of the astounding runework they saw in the Headmaster's chamber.

Harry settled into one of the circles, while Ginny took one two over, with Dumbledore himself forming the apex of a triangle. Harry jumped a little when Fawkes flew into the circle and settled down in the center, looking intently at the two youths. The bird began to croon softly as Dumbledore took the lead and activated the runic array.

"I have found," Dumbledore said softly, "in the days since my poisoning it gives me some comfort and ease to perform this ritual with Fawkes nearby. The circle cleanses all dark magic, but unfortunately can do nothing regarding a poison. Still, it has helped. Perhaps it will help you as well, Harry. This is a Merlin Circle, a more comprehensive array than the Ministry uses. I think you will find the experience much more profound here."

Harry felt the purity of the runic magic underneath him and closed his eyes as it began to seep up into his body from the floor. Against the purity of this new magic, Harry could for the first time feel the oily darkness that had crept into his magical core. It was not just from using dark magic that did it to him—it was from the rage he felt when he knowingly took the life of another fifteen-year-old boy.

Draco's face flittered across his closed eye lids, but not as Harry last saw him. Rather, he saw the skinny, pale-faced boy in Madam Malkin's talking away. Some part of Harry—that part who was still just a boy—desperately wanted to find some happy memory associated with Malfoy, but he just couldn't. His every interaction with him had been tinged with dislike or threats, ever since that first day on the train when Harry chose Ron over Draco.

That fact saddened him. With the phoenix song washing over him and the purity of the white magic flowing through his core, the fact that he did not have a single good memory of Draco broke his heart. He sought desperately for the other faces of the Slytherins, and again he could not find any good or happy interactions with them. He killed those kids without hesitation because they tried to kill him—and came terribly close to succeeding with Luna. She would survive, but none of those who had tried to kill them would. He flinched when his mind replayed the sound of Pansy Parkinson's head cracking against the ceiling; or the sounds Nott made as he screamed after Harry's overpowered severing curse took of his arm and a large portion of his shoulder and a lung.

He could feel the white magic steadily moving up, settling in his stomach now, as all the pain and anguish he'd felt over the past year swelled in his mind. He saw Sirius laughing as they duelled during that perfect, glorious summer before fourth year. He saw Cedric congratulating him after a good game, or later wishing him luck before the first task of the tournament.

He saw again the way Krum's head exploded, felt the agony of Voldemort shattering his Occlumency shields, and relived the sight of Sirius lying dead in the mud.

Sirius...

The magic was rising to his neck now, and he was crying. Sirius was gone; the last link he had to his father was gone. Remus tried, but it was not the same. Lupin divorced himself from the Marauders out of a sense of self-preservation. His own grief and guilt were so strong that he could never allow himself to simply enjoy life like Sirius did. But Sirius was gone—taken away from him just like his parents were. There was so much he wanted—so much he thought he deserved—that he would never have because of Voldemort.

It all came down to the Dark Lord.

The magic touched his scar, and Harry screamed before passing out entirely.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Harry awoke to possibly one of the worst headaches he had ever experienced in his life. It felt as if a giant vice were slowly squeezing his head in some insane effort to force his eyeballs to pop out. The sheer, overwhelming pain of it wrenched his stomach violently, forcing him to roll onto his side where he retched until nothing but bile remained, and then retched some more.

The vomiting made the pain even worse. However, through the pain he felt the mild buzz of someone else's magic nearby. As the buzz became stronger, it smoothed out into a soothing purr that did not end the pain, but blunted it. He felt a pair of lips brushing against his. "Ginny," he whispered. He tried opening his eyes, but that just made the headache worse. "What happened?"

"You screamed and passed out," she said softly, as if sensing how badly he hurt. He felt rather than saw her silently vanish the vomit, and then realized she kissed him, albeit lightly, after he vomited. If ever he needed proof that she loved him…

"I knew that. Why?"

He felt another, much stronger buzz of magic, but this time it did not meld into his, but rather pushed against it and made his headache that much worse. "Professor Dumbledore," he groaned. "Please, could you step back. My head is killing me."

"I can help with that," he heard Pomfrey say. Her magic was much less intrusive than the Headmaster's as she leaned over and placed a potion to his lips. He could feel the magic of the fluid spreading out and up from his stomach, much like the healing magic of the purifying ritual.

With the relief, Harry was able to open his eyes to see Ginny on his right holding his hand, Pomfrey leaning back from his left with the empty vial in her hands, and Dumbledore standing at the foot of his bed. Adonis stood next to the Headmaster in Unspeakable robes. It was only the tone of his disguised voice that gave him away. "Well, that was interesting, wasn't it?"

"No, it wasn't," Harry said. "It was the worst pain I've ever felt."

"Worse than Voldemort's _Cruciatus_?" Ginny asked.

"Yes!" Harry said fervently. "It felt like I was dying! What the hell happened?"

"I believe I know, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said. "But first I have to ask you about your experiences with previous cleansing ceremonies."

"They weren't like that," Harry said quickly. "That was a thousand times more intense."

Dumbledore nodded. "Indeed it should have been. Adonis tells me that you were taught using the Asclepius Circle, which is the standard in the Ministry. While this is a perfectly acceptable means of cleansing dark magic, it is primarily for adults who, simply through the unfolding of life, carry a certain taint within them. I, however, habitually employ the Merlin Circle, which is a more pervasive and complete spiritual cleansing, because of my familiar bond with Fawkes. Being a creature of the light, he finds any trace of dark magic unbearable. It is also for this reason that he joins me, causing the effectiveness of the ritual to become even more pronounced."

"Why use that ritual?" Harry asked.

Dumbledore smiled weakly. "Let us just say that I have lived a long time, and those years carry their own taint. I…your words the previous night struck more truly than I think you appreciated, Harry. After a thorough investigation, we discovered Draco Malfoy used the Killing Curse against Daphne Greengrass shortly before his attempted ambush against you. We will likely never recover her body, but not even I can deny that her death was a direct result of Malfoy's return. The Minister is beside herself, but the blame rests solely with me. That ceremony was as much for me, Harry, as it was for you. But regardless of that, the most interesting thing is how your scar reacted."

"You started bleeding, Harry," Ginny said. "When you screamed, it looking like your scar was going to split your head open. It started bleeding, and then this horrid black pus started coming out."

"I don't…" Harry began, before Adonis spoke.

"Harry, the ritual directly attacked the Horcrux in your scar," the cloaked Unspeakable said gravely. "The whole purpose of the Merlin Circle is to literally destroy any dark magic that lingers in your body, and so it attacked the only true dark magic within you."

It took a moment for Harry to understand. "Does that mean…is it…?"

"No," Dumbledore said. Then more gently, "Not yet, at least. We removed you from the circle when you collapsed because you were obviously in great pain. It was only afterward, when Unspeakable Adonis and I reviewed my memory of what happened that we realize the true import of this."

Ginny squeezed his hand. "It means we can kill the Horcrux in you without risking your life," she said with a brilliant, teary smile.

"Hurts like hell, though," Harry muttered.

"That cannot be helped, I'm afraid," Dumbledore said.

"We shouldn't do anything right now regardless," Adonis said. "According to Madam Pomfrey your magic is a bit shaky at the moment. But in a week or so, I think we should revisit the good headmaster's ritual chamber. In the meantime, rest as much as you can this week. With Luna in the hospital, you can have the time off from training."

Pomfrey released Harry that afternoon and with Ginny by his side he made his shaky way back to the Gryffindor common room.

The mood in the room was subdued, but not necessarily angry. Unfortunately, the violent deaths of at least sixteen students and the serious injury of another could not be hushed up, and so the whole world knew that almost half of Slytherin House attacked and nearly killed Luna, and that Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley killed everyone one of them in return.

The next day, the _Daily Prophet_ called it the Massacre of Hogwarts, while the _Quibbler_ and _Witch Weekly_ referred to it as a cleansing. Whatever the papers called it, the wizarding world knew without a doubt that students of Hogwarts engaged in a bloody, violent battle, and those who supported Voldemort died.

Terrified parents almost immediately started writing to the Ministry to demand Harry's expulsion from Hogwarts, not because they blamed him for defending himself, but because of the fear of reprisals against their own children. The public backlash against the Minister was profound as well; the _Daily Prophet_ seemed to take great delight in revealing that the head of the DMLE, the newly promoted Devon Williamson, allowed Draco to go free with Minister Bones' full knowledge and approval, while Dumbledore allowed the boy to return to school only to have him murder a fellow student the very next day, and incite a battle that would see he and fifteen of his classmates dead at the conclusion. Coming so soon on the heels of the defection and escape of former Head Auror Gawain Robards, these articles were definite blows to the people's confidence in the Ministry.

Harry read the news with a sinking feeling in his stomach over the days following the fight, nor was he alone. Hermione read each article with a deep frown, often reading aloud at the table for Ron.

Harry sat across from her, wincing at each word.

On the third day following the fight, after Hermione read aloud a piece that featured Antonius Greengrass's call for a vote of No Confidence against Minister Bones in the Wizengamot, Harry finally shook his head and said, "This can't go on. The Minister's entire administration is going to fall over this."

"That's what Voldemort is counting on," Hermione said. Before she could explain further, they spotted a pair of Ministry Owls flying toward them. The two owls alit at their table on either side of a platter of eggs and held up their legs to Ginny and Harry respectively.

"How is Luna doing?" Neville asked, looking for a safer topic.

"We spoke to her father last night," Harry said, not mentioning the conversation was by magic mirror. "She's been awake but is still very weak. He said she's making good progress. She should be able to come back to school before the end of term, we hope."

"I'm sure she'll do fine," Hermione said. "The girl might be a bit of a nutter, but she is brilliant."

"You are too," Ron said quickly. "And you're prettier."

Hermione stared at him for a moment, her cheeks tinged with red. "Thank you, Ron," she said sincerely.

He stammered a bit, but then nodded. "It's true."

"And you're not a psychopath," Harry added. "As much as I care for Luna, you definitely have that going for you."

Hermione beamed. "Well, yes, there is that."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

At nine the following Saturday morning, Harry and Ginny reported to the Headmaster's office. Dumbledore was again seeking treatment at St. Mungo's; they were met instead by the Deputy Headmistress. McGonagall nodded to them neutrally, herself deeply shaken by just what Harry and Ginny were able to do, and stepped aside so they could use the Floo. She left them alone, which allowed them to pull on their Unspeakable Cloaks before going directly to the Department of Mysteries.

The room their cloaks directed them to was the same briefing room used the previous summer in planning the rescue of the missing children. Inside, at a round table, sat Devon Williamson, head of the DMLE. Next to him saw Algie Croaker, Arthur Weasley, and on the other side sat Madame Marchbanks.

"The room is secure," Arthur said. "You may remove your cowls."

Harry and Ginny did so but remained standing. Both knew this was their official after-action briefing.

"Congratulations on your test results, children," the old witch said by way of greeting.

"Thank you, Madam Marchbanks." Ginny said. "Is that why you're here?"

"I'm here as an Elder of the Wizengamot, a Governor of Hogwarts, and the head of the Wizarding Testing Authority," the elderly witch said.

"Please have a seat," Arthur said, taking a decidedly professional tone rather than the fatherly one he normally used with them. "And don't worry, you're not really in trouble, but we have some hard choices to make. You're here for your official debriefing."

Harry and Ginny said at the table, nervously clutching each other's hand. Marchbanks noticed but said nothing.

"Harry, Ginny," Devon Williamson began, "we have reviewed your testimony and memories from the fight—the second one—at Hogwarts. While the death of Draco Malfoy might be questionable, given the circumstances and his own actions earlier that day, we've decided not to pursue any charges against you. In fact, Amelia gave you both a blanket pardon to ensure future administrations did not attempt to retroactively try you. However, we can't deny that the repercussions of that fight have made life difficult for us."

"Antonius Greengrass is an influential man," Arthur explained. "He's a pureblooded traditionalist who was well known for his neutrality in the last war. He is the spokesman for the non-radical Pureblood movement, which is the public face of everything He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named stands for, and that gives him a great deal of power in the Wizengamot. Right now he is grieving. With a strong sympathy vote, he could very well unseat Amelia, and if that happens, Voldemort won't need to fight. He'll have already won."

"The first step in our plan is for me to take the fall," Williamson said without a trace of regret. "As head of the DMLE, I was in charge of Snape's interrogation and ultimately it was my decision to release Malfoy. I didn't want to, but according to the letter of the law we had no choice."

Harry looked sick at the idea. "But it's not your fault!"

"That's how politics works," Croaker said. "An embattled minister needs someone for the public to blame besides themselves. Amelia is not happy about this either. Don't worry, though. Devon here will have a place in the DoM so there won't be any financial harm to him or his family."

Harry had to admit that news did make him feel a little better. "So what's the next step?"

"The next step," Croaker said dryly, "is to attack Daphne Greengrass's character."

"What?" Harry said, stunned.

"You're not involved in that," Arthur said, looking pained. "And it's not something I'm particularly proud of. A plant at the _Prophet_ has already written an extensive article about Daphne's activities at Hogwarts. While there is nothing technically false, she's taken the worst possible slant on everything that poor girl had done. I'm sorry we have to do this—Ms. Greengrass was undoubtedly a victim and did not deserve what happened to her, or what we're going to do, but the administration's survival is paramount. Greengrass cannot be allowed to win a vote of No Confidence. We are telling you so that you are prepared when you see the reports, and to warn you not to attempt to interfere."

"And step three," Croaker said, "is you two. I'm sorry we have to do this, but we may have to allow the Wizengamot to hold a hearing over what happened."

"But you said…" Harry began.

"The hearing will not carry any criminal penalties," Arthur said. "It will be an inquest into the events surround the attack and will not involve Veritaserum since it is not a criminal trial. There is the low risk of civil penalties, but since you were the ones attacked, that is unlikely. The only family that would have any grounds to sue would be the Malfoys, and since both are wanted criminals, not even their solicitors would be able to press for a suit. But it would give the Wizengamot a chance to channel some of the public concerns. We will of course provide you a solicitor to act as counsel to you. It is our hope that this may also serve to alleviate some of the public concerns."

"Those concerns are pretty realistic," Ginny pointed out. "Voldemort is going to retaliate."

"We know," Williamson said. "We're taking every step we can. However, the Ministry agrees with Dumbledore that Hogwarts must remain open. It is the second major anchor that holds our society together."

The mention of a social anchor made Harry and Ginny both think of Luna.

"Rest assured the Wizengamot hearing will be our last resort," Arthur said. "We're hoping the first two steps will render it unnecessary, but we wanted the two of you to be prepared in case it does happen. We also wanted to warn you ahead of time before the articles on Ms. Greengrass come out."

"That's really…cheap, Daddy," Ginny couldn't help but say. "It's like something Malfoy would do."

"The suggestion came directly from the Head Unspeakable," Algie said.

"That explains it," Harry said, completely believing Zeus would support attacking a dead teenage girl's reputation to save the Ministry.

"Well, we're very sorry about all this, Mr. Williamson," Ginny said. "You've done a good job."

"Not that good," Williamson said. "I should have assigned two Aurors to Ms. Greengrass at the school so that they could spell each other during breaks. That was my mistake, and that alone would make me willing to resign. If I can help save Amelia in the process, well, so much the better."

"We'll take care of him," Croaker promised. "In fact, you two might be seeing him again in another capacity soon enough. In the meantime, I'm sure that Adonis approved your supplemental training from Auror Proudfoot, and your idea for a self-defence study club is a good one. That should keep the two of you busy. Also, the entire DoM has begun searching for leads on those items of interest to Voldemort. Our senior researchers are attempting to fabricate a scrying or detection spell that might lead us to locate the items more quickly."

"That's good to know, sir," Harry said, genuinely relieved to know that the whole department was attempting to help.

"The DoM is secure, I'll walk you back to the Floo," Arthur offered. The teens followed after, their Unspeakable cloaks swung over their arms.

"Are we going to be in trouble?" Harry asked.

Arthur walked with his head bowed as if in thought, and did not answer immediately. A heartbeat later, Ginny said, "Daddy?"

"Just thinking, Firefly," Arthur said. "About…sixteen kids. Sixteen."

"Sir," Harry said, desperately at the thought of his guardian's disapproval, "they attacked us first, they…"

Arthur looked up, making Harry's breath catch at the look of sad weariness he saw there. "Harry, I'm not mad at you. I'm heartbroken at the situation, at what others have made you become, but I'm not mad at you. I understand you have had three intensive years of training under Lovegood's regime, but you need to understand something about him. He is utterly ruthless. This suggestion to attack Ms. Greengrass's character is a perfect example of that. His decision to use his daughter's condition as a DoM asset is another. Do not ever make the mistake of thinking that the Department of Mysteries is nice, either of you. You work for them, but you haven't seen the full extent of what they can and will do. Look at what they've made of you—teenage soldiers capable of killing sixteen classmates in a pitched battle in the middle of school, at fifteen and fourteen respectively."

"Daddy…" Ginny began.

"I know it is too late to stop him," Arthur cut her off. "It is too late to change who you have each become, and I'll admit I'm not sure I would want to try, considering what you face. But do not defend him or this program of yours to me, Ginny. Accept it if you must, but do not defend it. To use children as agents of the DoM is simply inexcusable. No moral, decent human being would ever do that. The damage is done, but don't think I'll ever call Xeno Lovegood my friend again after what he has done."

Harry remembered his aborted conversation with Arthur after he moved in with the Weasleys, and saw now the same righteous fury in the face of his guardian. "I understand," he finally said. "He's made us into better weapons than Dumbledore would have, but we're still weapons."

Arthur could only nod sadly.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Lucius Malfoy sat alone in a darkened room in his ancestral home. A bottle of the finest Single Malt lay empty on the floor to his left, in his right hand he clutched an article from the Daily Prophet, listing the names of those children who had died at Potter's hands.

Draco was the first name listed. His son—his only son—was dead while carrying out the Dark Lord's task. He knew when he took the mark there would be a price to pay for his actions, but never in a thousand years could he have ever imagined it being so high.

_His only son was dead. _

The door opened behind him and he could both feel and smell his wife's soothing presence. She too was grieving in her own way. Neither dared show their grief to Voldemort—the Dark Lord was in an odd mood following the failed attempts at Hogwarts, and it was difficult to say whether he would commiserate with them for their loss, or torture them for their son's failing. Further complicating matters was the fact that Narcissa had advanced to the inner circle, surpassing her husband's old position while he languished in Azkaban.

Narcissa moved around and sat on his lap, draping her arms around his shoulders. She said nothing as she held him, simply letting their magic blend together to soothe them both. It was the one true miracle of magical marriage—how their magic could calm each other in times of stress. Of all the things he missed while in Azkaban, it was his wife's magic he missed the most.

Finally, she kissed him before she stood and let her luxurious silk dress fall to the floor. Even now, after twenty years of marriage, Narcissa was a stunningly beautiful woman, and she stood now before him so that he could see just how stunning she was.

"Love me, husband," she commanded. Lucius stood and allowed her to remove his clothing, before he sat back down and she straddled him on the chair. Throughout their quick, frenzied lovemaking, her eyes never left his. When they finished, she grabbed his face and said quickly, "There shall be another heir. I've taken a potion to secure that much."

"And for Draco?"

"For Draco," Narcissa hissed, "there shall be vengeance. The Dark Lord has granted us this much. We shall avenge our son's death with the blood of everyone Harry Potter loves."

* * *

sp

sp

**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading! All three made some very good suggestions for this chapter. I enjoyed their discussion on what whiskey Lucius should be drinking.


	47. Summoned

A/N: Chap 46 Review Responses are available in my forums. Thank you for reading.

* * *

**Chapter Forty-Seven: Summoned**

On the first Saturday of the second term, Daniel Proudfoot kicked Harry's ass, and then kicked Ginny's for good measure, since of course the two came together. It made Harry a little angry that the powerful man did not pull his punches for Ginny at all; on the flipside that made Ginny appreciate the man more for not treating her differently.

After their sparring session in a classroom that Proudfoot had covered in cushioning charms, the former Auror had both take a seat on a bench. "Okay, this is what I see," he said, while the two teens healed each other of their many bruises and cuts. "You both have good speed, but you're using power moves without the physical strength to back it up. Now, I know a little bit about some of the techniques the DoM uses, so I understand you have the means to make those blows stronger, but sometimes you can't always use magic to fight. So I'm going to concentrate on blows more suited to your size and speed."

"Yes, sir," Harry said, relieved by Ginny's healing, as she was by his.

"Here," Proudfoot said, removing a scroll from his robes, which lay folded neatly by the door. The three of them had sparred in training clothes rather than school robes. "Curriculum ideas for your club. Also, let your club know that the Ministry has offered special Apparition training for students sixth year and up. They won't be licensed, but the DMLE is prepared to give waivers to anyone who has to Apparate away in case of an emergency."

"That's great news," Ginny said. "We'll make the announcement. Professor McGonagall gave us permission to post notices tomorrow for the club. It'll be all ages, including the firsties."

Proudfoot looked as if he was about to denigrate the idea, but then shook his head. "I suppose they're all at risk. If a firstie can learn a stunning spell, it might be enough to save their lives. All right, on your feet. Let's get started again."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Two long, painful hours later Harry and Ginny stumbled painfully to lunch. "I haven't hurt this bad since our first week training with Adonis and Luna," Harry muttered as he and Ginny sank down onto a bench.

Being a Saturday, the hall had a steady stream of students coming to and from the hall. As they were eating, Hermione made her way in with her nose in her Potions book, reading so intently her lips moved with the words she read. She sat down in front of Harry and Ginny without seeming to even notice them, and started picking at the trays of sandwiches and crisps spread over the table.

"So do you think Hermione would spare enough time from revising for her OWLs to help with the lower years?" Harry wondered aloud to Ginny while surreptitiously pretending their friend wasn't there.

Hermione either caught on immediately and pretended not to notice, or was in fact so far into her reading that she truly did not notice the jibe. Ron, meanwhile, meandered in and sat next to Hermione, placing a quick kiss on her cheek. "Hello, Ron," Hermione said absently. "Finished your Magical Creatures essay?"

"Just now," Ron said.

"Good. Harry and Ginny are going to ask us to help them with their club," Hermione continued in the same absent tone of voice.

"You know, that is impressive," Ginny said.

"Ruddy brilliant, she is," Harry agreed. "So, you two think you can help? It's going to be open to all years, but we want third year and below handled in a separate group so they don't slow the older students down. You'll be tutoring the lower years on basic stunners, disarming hexes, shields, and dodging."

"Why us?" Ron asked as he began piling sandwiches onto his plate.

"You've had some training already," Ginny pointed out. "And even though you try not to admit it, you've actually become pretty good. Plus, you and Hermione are prefects, so that instantly gives you an air of authority."

"While you, on the other hand, are an insanely powerful slayer of Slytherins," Ron said offhandedly. A moment later, as Hermione lowered the book to glare and Harry and Ginny stared at him, his cheeks flared brilliant red. "Er, sorry 'bout that. I'm still new to the 'Not a git' Ron. I backslid, you know?"

Hermione sniffed, before looking sadly at Harry and Ginny. "I hate to say this, but it's not just Ron. The entire seventh year of Slytherin is gone, and most of sixth. Only three fifth years are left. I saw a group of fourth years actually turn and run away because you were in the hall on the way to Herbology. The whole school is sort of afraid of you."

"Not the Hufflepuffs," Ron said. "Neville's started dating that Abbot girl, you know the one with the big…eyes?" He froze a little under Hermione's warning glare. "Anyway, he said that she said that the whole house is behind you because of the way Professor Sprout hugged you—you know, after the last time you killed…" The boy snorted. "You know, you kill a lot of people around here, Harry. It's bad when I can't even talk about things without mentioning how you killed some people."

"I know, Ron," Harry said softly. "So, back on topic, will you help?"

"'Course he will," Hermione said as if it were a given, "and I will too. Do you have a curriculum?"

"Professor Proudfoot gave me material for the upper years. I would like you guys to work on stunners and footwork initially. Remember that game we played when we first started training with Adonis?"

"Water balls?" Hermione said. "Oh, that'll be perfect for the younger years. Do you know how many will show up?"

"Everyone," Ron said with certainly. "It's Harry Potter, of course."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~ Unspeakable~~

They held the first session in the great hall, and Ron proved prescient in his prediction, since the majority of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff showed up, along with a good sprinkling of Ravenclaws. "Luna's not here, is she?" one of the girl's roommates asked in trepidation.

"No, she's going to be home recovering for much of the term," Harry assured her, wondering if the Ravenclaws would have left en masse otherwise. He divided the room up by year with Hermione and Ron working with the lower years, while he and Ginny worked with the fifth, sixth and seventh years.

If anything good had come out of Harry's fights in the castle, it was that he was afforded instant respect. Not even the Seventh Years talked back to Harry, despite his being two years younger. Of course, the fact he and Ginny had both sat three N.E.W.T.s helped as well.

"Thank you all for coming," Harry said once the groups were set up. "Professor Proudfoot, our sponsor, was kind enough to provide some curriculum inspired by the Auror Academy. Our goal in this club is not to turn you into Aurors, Hit Wizards or soldiers. It is to give you the tools you'll need to survive in the event Voldemort or his people attack you this summer. You can work as much or as little as you want—we're not professors and we won't take points or assign detentions. But everyone knows that the war has already reached into these halls, and you know that outside these walls it could be worse. You are our friends, and we're going to do everything we can to give you the tools you need to survive. So, please line up in groups of six, three facing three. Once you're in position, I'd like one side to cast a stunner, and the other a standard shield. If you don't know either of those, stand down for the moment."

Within the first ten minutes, Harry and Ginny decided that they would need to further segregate the students, and would need to recruit more assistants. They pulled the third and fourth years into a separate group, and to this group they assigned two seventh years—the Ravenclaw head girl and the Hufflepuff head boy—as the assistants. With the remaining three years, they began their lessons.

Watching quietly from behind a buttress, Proudfoot leaned against a wall with his arms crossed. He did not look when a second person stepped to his side.

"Wow," Tonks said. Newly released from St. Mungo's after Harry and Ginny healed her, the metamorphmagus was on detached assignment guarding the Minister's niece, who was right in the middle of the fifth years practicing.

"They're good," Proudfoot said.

"Mum thinks they're the ones that actually healed me," the junior Auror said. Proudfoot was her friend, and she hated his transfer as much as he did.

"I believe it, that Potter boy is insanely powerful."

"Holy Morgana's ovaries, was that a Patronus?" Tonks said, jaws agape. Indeed, a brilliant, silvery stag Patronus pranced around the room, causing all the other students to stop and stare at the brilliant, beautifully cast piece of magic. "They don't even teach that in NEWT classes any more, they just mention it."

"Ten galleons said he has half the kids in his group doing it by March," Proudfoot said.

"You're on!"

Come March, Tonks would pay the ten galleons with a rueful smile.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Luna returned to Hogwarts on the twenty ninth of March. She arrived via Floo directly from the Rookery into the Headmaster's office. Harry and Ginny were there, hand in hand, waiting for her. Though the teens had been corresponding regularly and speaking using their enchanted mirrors, it was still shocking to see how thin and pale Luna looked. However, her cheeks pinked and she actually smiled serenely when she saw them.

"Hello," she said simply.

Harry hugged her and gave her a kiss, and Ginny did the same, while behind them the headmaster looked on with a blank expression, looking even thinner and paler than Luna did. "Miss Lovegood, welcome back," he said.

"Thank you, Headmaster. I must say, you look absolutely dreadful."

"Indeed, you look somewhat under the weather yourself. I trust you will continue your potion regime while here?"

"Yes," she said simply.

The three started to leave, when the headmaster said, "Harry, have you given any thought as to when you wish to perform the cleansing ritual?"

Harry _had_ thought about it, extensively. While Harry did not want to consider himself a coward, the fact was that the first ritual hurt him so very badly that the thought of going through it again was enough to make his stomach knot and his head hurt. Beside him, Ginny took his arm and said, "We're still discussing it, Headmaster, but it will be soon."

"I would suggest before the end of term," the old wizard said. "Harry, I know it was a terrible experience for you, but truthfully you will need me there to guide you. And sadly, my young friend, I don't know how much longer I'll be available to do that for you."

Despite all the bitterness that had gone between them in the past, Harry couldn't help but feel a pang at the thought of this legendary wizard dying. And yet, as he stood and studied Dumbledore, he could actually _feel_ how the man's magic had diminished, to a point where he was barely more powerful that McGonagall or Flitwick. "I understand, sir," he said, unable to avoid the note of sadness in his voice. "We'll let you know very soon."

"Very good, then," Dumbledore said. "Off with you."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The Wizengamot summons arrived by Ministry owl on the first day of April. Thanks to a call from Adonis through their enchanted amulets, Harry and Ginny knew to expect it. Still, he felt a sinking pit of cold in his stomach when he read the actual summons.

"Both of us," Ginny muttered, looking down at her own summons.

"You are a witness," Harry pointed out.

Luna joined them a few minutes after the owl arrived and studied the summons a moment before handing it back. "It will likely devolve into personal attacks," she said absently. "They will especially concentrate on your relationship to Ginny and myself."

"Why?"

Luna ate a piece of bacon with obvious distaste—part of her dietary requirements resulting from her injury was more meat. "Because the Minister has ensured you will not suffer any legal consequence. She had the DMLE formally rule the deaths as justifiable homicide, so there can be no criminal trial, and there's a blanket pardon on top of that. However, there could be civil penalties imposed such as the _galanas_, or blood money. Attacking your character would be a way to help justify those penalties."

"The hearing is next Friday," Ginny read. She looked up and said, "Well, I guess we just go along our merry way until then."

Harry nodded, stuffed the summons into his school robe, and then studied his girlfriend for a moment; Ginny returned the look. Around them, the tables were mostly empty as it was late morning and the core classes had begun. Luna, watching the two of them, said, "What are you two thinking about?"

"You, actually," Harry said. "We spoke last night about you, and about the study DADA group. The groups are doing really well. I think most of the upper years could at least get themselves out of a fire fight if they had to, and the lower years might know enough to surprise an attacker if they're lucky. But we were thinking about other study groups, and you."

"Luna, we think you should offer to tutor in Arithmancy and Runes," Ginny said.

Luna blinked. "Why ever would I do that?"

"Do you remember why Adonis paired you with us?" Harry asked.

"To be my social and moral anchors."

"Has it worked, Luna?" Ginny asked.

"I've not killed any students," Luna pointed out, as if that in and of itself was confirmation. "Or, more precisely, students who I was not authorized to kill."

"Do you have any friends outside of us or our friends?" Harry asked.

"Why would I want friends?"

"That's the point of this," Ginny told her.

"Ginny and I think that you do not have sufficient interaction with other students," Harry said, speaking as if he were reading an oft-rehearsed speech. "We spoke with Healer Richardson about this, and she agrees this would be a good idea. We would like you to go to your former roommates in Ravenclaw, and for that matter any other students, and offer to tutor them. Feel free to let them know that you have achieved your NEWTscores in the subjects already."

Luna's expression did not change and her voice remained calm, but she grabbed her left arm with her right, digging into her flesh with her nails. "Do you believe that is entirely wise?" she said. "I have had to be quite firm with my roommates previously, and I do believe they hold some ill-will toward me."

"Luna," Ginny said gently, "we know it will be difficult. But we've decided it's time to start building social experiences on your own. We'll always be here for you, but you must learn to live your own life."

Ginny blushed a little, but added, "And if you do this, we are prepared to reward you."

"Really?" Luna raised one brow and stopped digging her nails into her arm.

"A bath," Harry said, blushing as well. "In the Room of Requirement. Ginny and I will bathe you every Friday night, if you can do this. And no, this doesn't mean an orgy or anything like that. But we will bathe you, and pamper you."

"So this is your mission," Ginny said. "You are to be as helpful as possible to your housemates and any others that request tutoring in Arithmancy or Ancient Runes, with the ultimate goal of ensuring all those who seek your help pass their subjects. You will stop threatening your former housemates unless absolutely necessary under established mission parameters for DoM stated objectives. And if you succeed, payment will be made in the form of being treated to a bath every week."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before finally nodding. "Very well. What shall we name the mission?"

"Operation New Moon," Harry said.

"How apropos," Luna said dryly. "Very well."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

That very evening, Luna stepped calmly into the common room of Ravenclaw. Some of the older students noticed but said nothing—her own role in the battle to save Susan Bones was well known. When she reached her room, she found her roommates studying in a seated circle on the floor while at the same time applying nail colouring charms to their toenails.

All four looked up at Luna in mild alarm that she arrived so early, but then pointedly ignored her. Luna stood just inside the door of her room and watched them, wondering absently if Harry would like her toenails coloured. She noted that Ginny often had coloured nails as well, so she thought Harry must like it, if he noticed at all. She was realistic enough to accept the possibility that Harry would not care in any event, being a boy. However, she suspected little touches like coloured nails could serve to affect a boy's overall impression of femininity and beauty even if he did not notice the specific details.

Luna crossed the book and parchment cluttered floor and sank Indian-style to sit near the four girls. Instantly the nearest, Orla Quirke, recoiled back. "We didn't do anything!" she shrieked.

"I know," Luna said with her trademark smile. "What are you studying?"

Lorna Spattersly, a short, pudgy girl with thick brown hair, hesitantly said, "Transfiguration."

Luna nodded, accepting the information as another bit of data to be processed. "I find myself in an unfamiliar situation," she finally said, "and I believe I need your assistance in dealing with it."

Morgana Havenot, a tall, statuesque girl with perfectly coiffed black hair and cold blue eyes stared at Luna with a gaping jaw. "You want our help? After all you've done to us?"

"Yes," Luna said simply. "I have been given new parameters, you see. I will no longer harm any of you, unless it is necessary to protect myself or my other objectives. My mission is to offer you my assistance in tutoring, both to you and any other student that should require it. I was originally asked to offer my services just to Arithmancy and Ancient Runes, but I in fact hold NEWTs in Transfiguration, Charms, DADA, Runes and Arithmancy, and so could assist you in any of these areas."

The girls merely stared a moment, before the last to speak, a Muggleborn girl named Polly Pickering, said, "Bollocks."

"You did not know?" Luna said, genuinely surprised. "I thought the whole school knew that Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley and I took our NEWTs. They took the three core tests while I took those three plus Arithmancy and Runes."

"We knew about Potter and Weasley," Havenot said.

"So why is it you hang around them so much?" Orla asked. "They're Gryffindors."

Orla was the middle one—not as tall as Morgana nor as pudgy as Lorna, she had dirty blonde hair and a large mouth. Not attractive, Luna thought, nor particularly unattractive. She looked just…plain, really.

"Well, that is a complicated question, really," Luna said.

"You said you needed our help," Morgana said flatly. "If you want our help, then you need to answer questions. We've been putting up with your shite for the past four years. Cursed, trapped, shit—I'm bloody tired of it, so you don't get to ask us anything until you tell us what the bloody hell is wrong with you."

Luna blinked at the sudden release of anger from the girl. "I would think it is obvious. By society's standards, I am quite insane."

"Tell us something we don't know," Polly said.

"Very well; my mother was among the most highly ranked Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries. She was a spell researcher and an accomplished expert in espionage until I was born. When I was nine years old, she was researching the _Cruciatus_ Curse in order to attempt to find some defence against it. I ran into to speak with her, distracted her, and that distraction allowed an underlying energy chain to catalyze within the spell. The resulting explosion of _Cruciatus_ energy killed her. She shielded me from some of it with her body thus saving my life, but as a result I had to watch my mother suffer through the equivalent of a hundred _Cruciatus_ curses condensed into a split second. She suffered quite horribly before she died. Even now, as I am telling you this, I can feel the _Cruciatus_ in my mind. Certain thoughts trigger the pain. As a result, I suffered lingering brain damage. I have been classified as suffering Antisocial Personality Disorder, still known in Wizarding parlance as psychopathy. I lack the ability to empathize with other human beings and have no moral or ethical centre to guide my actions. I could kill all of you without hesitation if given sufficient motivation. I have been paired with Harry and Ginny so that they may help me better interact with my peers. That is why I am here."

She stopped while the four girls stared at her in varying degrees of shock and horror. Finally, Lorna said, "Is it true Cho caught you rubbing one off in the common room?"

"Yes." Luna said. "I have impulse control issues, but am taking a potion to help."

Morgana clucked her tongue. "You're just all sorts of fucked up, aren't you girlie?"

"I am," Luna said. "However, I am also significantly more intelligent and advanced in my studies than any of you. If you would like me to assist you in any subject, I will do so."

"Well, I'm still having trouble with last week's Arithmancy lesson," Polly admitted.

"Regarding the arithmantic formula for the cheering charm?" Luna asked.

"Yeah,"

"Let me see your notes."

Despite the lingering suspicion from Orla, Lorna and Morgana, Polly took advantage of the offer, and in minutes the two girls were having an in-depth discussion of the mechanics behind spell creation, and the makeup of mind-charms such as the cheering charm.

The next week, after Polly scored perfectly on her test, she spread the word on why. Luna, meanwhile, looked forward to her bath.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Newly promoted Head Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt was assigned to escort Harry and Ginny to the Wizengamot. The two arrived hand-in-hand at the headmaster's office just as Shacklebolt emerged from the Floo in his Auror robes.

"Mr. Potter, Ms. Weasley," the kindly Auror said. "Are you ready?"

Harry nodded, while Ginny said, "We're ready."

"Very well, we'll be going directly to the DMLE, and from there to the Wizengamot chambers. Dumbledore is already there as Chief Warlock."

"He hasn't resigned yet?" Harry asked, surprised. "I thought he was planning to resign because of illness."

"He had one last hearing he had to attend," Shacklebolt said with a sad smile.

Half an hour later found Harry and Ginny sitting at a table with Ginny's father acting as their guardian, listening to select members of the Wizengamot give speech after speech on the unacceptable levels of violence at Hogwarts. Some called for Dumbledore's removal as headmaster; some called for Hogwarts Board of Governors to expel Harry and Ginny. Still others called for the elimination of the House structure entirely. Even though it was supposed to be a hearing to question the young couple, there were few questions actually asked. Rather it was an opportunity for Wizengamot members to rant for the journalists who lined the upper tiers of the spectator's galleries.

When they arrived, Harry had feared that angry old men would yell at him for hours. After the first hour, all fear was gone and he simply felt bored. That was until Theodorian Nott, Elder of the Wizengamot, stood to take his turn.

The wizard was easily sixty years old, with a thick, scraggly beard and a scar that separated his left brow into two lines. He moved with a slow, stately pace until he took his place at the podium and glared at Harry and Ginny. The reporters waited for him to begin his rant like all the others, but instead he said, "You murdered my son."

Harry felt his stomach clench. Ginny took his hand, and said, "With respect, we did not."

"You lie to this body?" Nott thundered suddenly. "You murdered my boy!"

"Again, with respect, we did not," Ginny said, grinding her teeth as she spoke. "We killed him. We did not murder him."

Nott blinked back, momentarily surprised. "You murdered him. He was there to play a prank, and you murdered him."

The clenching of Harry's stomach turned to ice at the sheer ludicrousness of that statement, and with a flash of insight he understood. Nott was there simply to discredit them, not matter what had to be said. He looked to Arthur, who shrugged, then to Ginny, before returning his attention to Nott. "Do Slytherin pranks normally consist –?"

"You will only speak when a question is asked of you in this chamber, _boy_!" Nott shouted. "You murdered my son for playing a prank, and I will see justice done no matter what our traitorous and incompetent minister says!"

Harry started to stand, his eyes flashing in rage, when Arthur grabbed his arms and said, "Sit down!"

Arthur then looked back to Nott. "Elder Nott, you're quick to make these accusations. I believe we should have the truth—all the truth. So I promise that Harry will give testimony to this body under Veritaserum, if you do the same."

Nott's face had started to brighten, but suddenly darkened again. "What?"

"Elder Nott," Arthur said, "your son was part of a group of young adults, every one of whom was the child of a known Death Eater. Every one, that is, but your son. Young Draco Malfoy in fact bore the Dark Mark. Now, I know from security that you do not bear the mark, but that doesn't mean anything. I ask, why should Theodore Nott be so quick to join the children of Death Eaters if he was not just as they are? Before I allow you to slander my ward, I want you to stand right now, without a chance to ingest any antidote or otherwise protect yourself, and testify under Veritaserum that you are not a Death Eater. If you do that, then I will consent as his guardian for Harry to do the same."

"You have no right to make such an accusation or demand!" Nott said. "I am a member in good standing! I am a law abiding citizen, and I will not be spoken to like this!"

"If you are unwilling to let the truth be known about yourself," Arthur said, "then you have no right to ask the same of Harry. The circumstances of the attack are very clear. The Ministry of Magic and the Department of Magical Law Enforcement clearly saw this as a case of self defence. I will admit openly that Harry is perhaps more capable of defending himself than an average student, but there is no doubt in my mind, the mind of the Minister or the Aurors who investigated this case that Harry, Ginny and their friend Luna Lovegood were attacked first, and that Ms. Lovegood was hit by an entrails-expelling curse before Harry or Ginny cast a single spell. That is not a prank, Nott. That is an assassination attempt."

By the end of his talk, Arthur was standing and almost yelling indignantly. "So, will you have the truth, or will you return to your seat and stop spewing forth these lies?"

"Go Dad!" Ginny whispered.

After a moment of silence, Dumbledore said, "Elder Nott, I believe the Undersecretary asked a question. I too am interested in the answer, since it is quite the coincidence that your son was the sole participant in the action who was not the child of a marked Death Eater."

"The moment we allow the accuser to question the Wizengamot is the day this body loses all authority!" Nott said.

"It was not the accuser who asked, Elder Nott," Dumbledore pointed out in a reasonable tone. "It was the Senior Undersecretary of Magic, second only to the Minister herself. Since this is not a criminal trial for Mr. Potter, Veritaserum cannot be compelled. However, his guardian has agreed that he is willing to take the potion if you are. I commiserate with your loss, and suspect that if I had lost a dear family member, I would wish through any means to obtain the truth of the matter. Will you testify under Veritaserum?"

"I will not!" Elder Nott declared.

"Very well. Then I think it would be well for you, Elder Nott, to return to your seat. Your speaking time, after all, is now over."

Glaring death at Arthur, Nott quickly stepped down and walked back to his seat.

The last to speak was Antonius Greengrass. The man also wore a beard, and with his dark, hollow eyes he looked ghastly. "I have only one question for you, Potter. One question only. Do you think my daughter was aiding and abetting the Dark Lord?"

Once more Harry's stomach cramped painfully, since that's exactly what the _Daily Prophet_ had reported. "Sir, I did not know Daphne. I've spoken to her only once, and that was when she warned me that Professor Snape was going to try and kill me in class. I asked her why she was warning me, and she said… that she wanted to save herself from Azkaban for using a dark curse on me while not making herself a target in Slytherin. I'm sorry, sir. I really am. But that's all I can tell you."

Greengrass closed his eyes, and asked, "Did she cast a curse at you in that class?"

"Yes, sir. She was the first in line and cast a blasting curse at me."

Greengrass stepped down from the podium, but did not return to his seat. Harry and Ginny both stood up with their wands in hand as he approached them, but he did not go for his wand. Instead he walked up to within an inch of Harry and said, "Malfoy's heir killed my little girl."

"Yes, sir. I'm sorry I couldn't save her. I really am."

"And then you killed Malfoy."

"Yes, sir, I did."

Greengrass closed his eyes, and a single tear ran down his gaunt, bearded cheek. "It is not your fault she is dead, Mr. Potter. It is Dumbledore's fault most directly."

"I…said the same, sir," Harry said.

"She was my little girl," Greengrass whispered. "My little angel ... Please, I beg of you, don't let the same fate befall her sister. She's the only family we have left."

Harry felt his own eyes water. "I can't swear that, sir. I swore to protect Daphne too, and I failed. I think…I'm sorry, but the only way to keep her safe is to move her. I'm sorry."

"I am too, lad." Greengrass covered his face with his hand before backing away. "Chief Warlock," he said when he lowered his hand, "I believe we have received the information we needed from Mr. Potter. This body thanks him for his time, and to him and his companion we give our best wishes."

Dumbledore nodded, while Harry sank on shaky knees back to his seat.

* * *

sp

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading! All three made some very good suggestions for this chapter.


	48. End of the Line

A/N: Chap 47 Review Responses are available in my forums.

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_Author's Note: By this time, Harry is 2 months from being 16 and Ginny is 2 months from being 15, while Luna is already15. They have all been in a committed relationship for nearly four years. And in this chapter, they finally do what teenagers in long term, committed relationships sometimes do. This chapter was not intended to be a lemon. In fact, I have no intention of sullying this story with lemons. I simply seek to convey what happens. If teen-age sex offends you, then you probably shouldn't have kids, and you should skim this chapter to get past the scene in question._

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**Chapter Forty-Eight: End of the Line**

The day after Harry finished his Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures and Potions O.W.L.s, accompanied by Ginny who, with special permission was granted permission to sit her O.W.L.s early, he, Ginny and Luna retreated to the Room of Requirement for Luna's last bath of the term.

While the baths were undeniably erotic, for Luna it was simply a matter of touch. She often sat perfect still in a tub only half filled with water, her eyes closed and her body perfectly still, while Harry and Ginny used sponges to soap and rinse her body. She did not hesitate a moment to disrobe in front of them, and luxuriated in their touch.

After the first three weeks, when Harry and Ginny both found themselves soaking wet, they wordlessly agreed and stripped down to their pants for Harry and knickers for Ginny, and the two bathed Luna. Sometimes, it became playful, splashing each other while Luna continued to sit between them like an infant.

Harry certainly noticed that their friend had developed a great deal since the first time he saw her without her clothes, when, on that sickening day Malfoy had put her under the _Imperius_ curse. As the baths went by and he grew more comfortable, he made a point of sponging her chest, and cleaning between her thighs. He noticed the vertical curse scar that stretched the width of her stomach, and sponged that carefully too.

The whole time, Luna sat perfectly still, her eyes half-lidded and her lips parted while her cheeks glowed pink. He knew she was excited by their touch, and more often than not, he was just as excited as she was.

It wasn't until that last Friday after their O.W.L.s that things changed. With cheeks aflame, Ginny stood after bathing Luna and said, "You know what, Harry? I think I would like a bath too."

Harry stood, eyes wide and mouth agape, as Ginny deliberately reached around her back and undid the clasp of her bra, letting it drop to the floor. Having touched her there during many of their snogging sessions, Harry had a generally good idea that she was well developed, but seeing her so plainly left him speechless.

His shock only increased as she slipped her knickers down until she stood nude before both he and Luna, stepped over the edge of the large iron-cast tub they used in the room, and settled down into the water herself. The water barely came up to her navel. Cheeks flaring, she looked pointedly at Harry and said, "Will you bathe me, Harry?"

Luna moved for the very first time, leaning forward to say, "May I help you too?"

Not trusting herself to speak, Ginny only nodded. Harry took the sponges and started on her back, not trusting himself entirely at first either. But she merely smiled at him, looking him in the eyes as Luna took a sponge as well and stared cleaning her neck and arms, as if sensing the rest was for Harry alone.

"I need you to clean all of me, Harry," she whispered.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded, chewing her lower lip enticingly. "I've never been more sure."

He cleaned her, moving the sponge from her back. After a few minutes of washing her, his hand lost track of the sponge entirely while continuing to run over her wet skin, while Ginny leaned into his touch until the two were simply kissing. "I'm ready," she whispered.

Harry wasn't sure who wished it, but the room provided a large bed for them just feet away from the tub. He stood and both Ginny and Luna stood as well, dripping wet and stunningly beautiful. It was Luna who stepped out of the tub first to fetch a towel, which she handed wordlessly to Harry. The blonde girl's cheeks were also flaming, but otherwise she looked as if she were about to do a session of training. She towelled herself off, while Harry vanished the water from the tub and gently began to rub Ginny dry.

He carried her to the bed, with Luna a step behind. "Why now?" he whispered as he placed her down onto the bed covers.

"The ritual tomorrow," Ginny said, looking up at him with such longing it made it hard for him to breathe. "I'm frightened, Harry. I know how very much it hurt you the first time. But more than that … I've wanted this. I want you, Harry. I want you to make love to me, because I love you, and I know that you love me, and I want us to share this together."

"May I stay?" Luna breathed.

"You're a part of us," Ginny said. "But this first time has to be for us, Luna. Do you understand?"

"Yes," she breathed. Still blushing from her cheeks down to the skin between her breasts, Luna stepped up behind Harry, pressing against his back with her arms around his stomach, before her narrow, almost ephemeral hands slid down his stomach to his waist, where she hooked the elastic band of pants and pulled them down.

Ginny stared unabashedly—for all their touching, she had never seen him fully naked, just as he had never seen her. "You're so beautiful, Ginny," he breathed, painfully erect already.

"You are too, Harry," she said. "Will you come into me now? Please?"

"Gods yes."

That first time was awkward. When Ginny winced at the pain, both froze up, until Luna with a brazen smile pointed her wand squarely at their joined bodies and incanted a spell that ended Ginny's discomfort immediately.

"They don't teach the _Virgin's Cry_ in Witch's Health," Luna said. "I had to find that one on my own."

Cheeks flushed with endorphins, Ginny whispered, "Thank you," as Harry began to move again. After that brief, awkward moment, they sped up, finding their rhythm, until Harry finished with a grunt.

They lay entwined, Ginny's legs around Harry's, for the longest time, until Luna said, "So, Ginny, did you orgasm?"

"I don't think so," Ginny admitted.

Harry looked up, stricken. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, Harry, it was nice," she said quickly. "Just, you know witches don't come every time, especially not their first time."

"You need to stimulate her more next time," Luna said wisely. "I had an orgasm tonight just with the way you washed my nether area, and another two just now watching you."

"The washing was nice," Ginny admitted. She turned and looked the still stricken boy in the face. "Harry, we are going to do this again. I love you, and we are going to make love again. And we're going to get better. Please believe me."

"Okay, Gin," he said, smiling wryly. "Guess I can't go bragging to my dorm mates about being a sex god, then."

"Not yet," Ginny said. "But you will. Harry, I love this." She pulled his face down to her breasts, while squeezing him with her legs. "I love the feel of you against me. The first time hurt more than I thought, that's all."

"If you would like," Luna said in a hopeful tone, "you could practice oral stimulation on me. That way, in your next time with Ginny, you'll know what to do."

Harry looked up at the girl he loved, and was surprised to see a spreading blush and the hint of a smile. "It might be nice, next time," she whispered. "If you wanted to practice and get better, I wouldn't mind."

He looked over at Luna, who lay on her side watching them with one knee propped up as if she was perfectly comfortable lying naked before them. "Are you sure, Gin?" he asked.

"I was your first," she said simply. "And she's helping you learn to be a better lover for me. I'm sure."

The night only got better after that, and for the remainder of the evening he was able to forget what was going to happen the next morning.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Harry woke up gasping for breath, only to feel one different arm from each side of him gently pull him back down. It was Saturday morning, the day the Hogwarts Express would take the other kids back to London. It was the day Harry would undergo a cleansing ritual they hoped would rid him of the in his scar once and for all.

He flopped back to his pillow and took a deep, shaking breath.

"Vision from Voldemort?" Luna asked.

"I think it's more likely he's not looking forward to this morning," Ginny said.

Luna nodded. "I understand the ceremony was quite painful the first time."

Harry rubbed his face and tried to shrug off the dull, slightly drugged feeling that came on the heels of the most astonishing, magical evening he had ever experienced.

"Hey, it'll be okay," Ginny whispered as she kissed his cheek. I'll be there."

"And so will Zeus, Adonis, Remus Lupin and three certified DOM healers," Luna pointed out. "If at any point we feel your life is in danger, we will stop the ceremony."

"And then after that," Ginny breathed into his ear, "we can go home and maybe practise what we learned last night some more."

"Yeah," Harry said, admitting how enticing that thought was.

He bounced out from between the girls until he could climb out of bed, then turned and looked back at them. The sheets from the bed were wrapped haphazardly around each of the two girls, enough to tantalize. He was suddenly reminded of their images in his Occlumency shields—fire and ice. The sight made him pause and grin stupidly. "The day is probably going to be horrid," he said, "but I doubt there's a boy alive who wouldn't give their right arm to have been where I was last night. Well, no point in putting it off, is there?"

"Do you wish to eat first?" Ginny asked.

"No, I don't think that's a good idea," Harry said. "But we definitely need to shower. All of us, I think, and then you two should grab a bite to eat."

"We do need it," Ginny agreed with a wrinkled nose.

Half an hour later, washed and dressed, the three of them left the Room of Requirement. The halls were mostly empty, save for a few straggling students. During the previous night's feast, Dumbledore announced his pending retirement from Hogwarts, as well as the appointment of Minerva McGonagall as his successor and Filius Flitwick as the deputy headmaster.

In Dumbledore's office, those Harry expected to meet were indeed waiting with the Headmaster. Harry's eyes, though, lingered only on Dumbledore. The man looked even worse than ever—he had obviously lost weight, and the skin around his face had taken on a waxy appearance. Even so, Dumbledore managed to summon a weak smile for him.

"I hope you had a good evening, Harry," the old wizard greeted him.

"It had its ups and downs," Harry said.

"Ginny was up, and I was down," Luna said brightly. "It was a most satisfactory evening."

Harry and Ginny could not help but glance at their guests. Adonis and Xenophilius were both in their Unspeakable robes because of the presence of the three healers, and so they could not see how Xenophilius reacted to his daughter's frank discussion of their activities the night before. The healers were all staring incredulously at the trio of teenagers, so much so that Harry strongly suspected they would not be allowed to keep the memories of the conversation.

Remus Lupin had his face in his hand and was shaking his head slightly, while obviously trying to stifle a grin.

Dumbledore's smile faltered a little. "Indeed. It would certainly explain the glow. Are you ready?"

"No," Harry admitted, "but I don't think I ever will be. I might as well get it over anyway."

They all trudged once more into the cleansing chamber. Ginny smiled at Harry and squeezed his hand before she went to one of the smaller circles. Dumbledore took his position across from her, while Harry took the third. The others gathered outside a thin white line of chalk that surrounded the outermost circle. Once more, Fawkes flew into the circle and took a spot at the .

Immediately the stunning phoenix began to sing, and just as quickly Harry felt at least a little of his tension fade. In doing so, he found himself looking at the Headmaster. Dumbledore gazed back at him with tired blue eyes set over his long, broken nose. "Are you ready, Harry?" he asked. The question felt oddly weighted, and for some reason he was reminded of that terrible day last year, right before he lost Sirius.

"I hope so, Professor," he said.

"Then let us begin."

Just like before, Harry felt the purity of the rune magic underneath him and closed his eyes as it began to seep up into his body from the floor. This time, the pure, colorless magic did not encounter the oily darkness that clung to him after executing Malfoy. In fact, it encountered little resistance from his magic at all. It accepted the happiness he felt from the night before, almost as if blessing it, before moving further up his body and magical core.

Once more faces flittered across his closed eye lids. This time he saw the Dursleys, but seeing them in his mind he could feel what little hate he had for them dissolving in the perfection of pure magic—he was above beyond them. They were not worth even the energy it took to feel anger at them, for he was in a better place with his Ginny and Luna, whatever role she played for them. Concubine? Lover? Pet nut job? He enjoyed her company but had no illusions as to what she was.

Malfoy's face arose like before, but with time and happiness the former nemesis simply did not seem as important anymore. All the rage he felt when Draco cursed Luna flittered away like chaff on the wind, and the magic rose higher.

There was the memory of Sirius. It did not hurt any more, not like it did at first. He could look back on that one, magical summer he had with his godfather as the happiest time of his life to that point, and rather than be sad, he felt eternally grateful that he had the chance to get to know the man. Sirius was not perfect, not by a long shot, but he stepped into a role in Harry's life that had been empty since he was fifteen months old. He loved Sirius, and he missed him, but as the pure magic swept over him, he accepted that Sirius was gone, and that he had moved on in his life because of Ginny.

His love for Ginny gave color to the colorless magic. It became white in his mind's eye—filled with every color of the spectrum. Where before it was pure and empty, now the magic felt full and bursting with life; all because of Ginny. Luna was important to him, and he did love her, but with Ginny, his love burned so bright it gave an exhilarating hurt. With Ginny by his side, he knew that when the time came, he would be able to face anyone.

Even Voldemort.

The white magic approached his scar, and within it he could feel a writhing darkness. The spirit trapped in the scar by his mother's protection sensed the wave of power approaching and struggled to find some way to escape. Now that Harry knew what was happening, he could feel exactly what was occurring, and he wondered that he had never before been able to distinguish the monstrousness nature of his scar.

Though Harry knew he was about to be hit with pain a thousand times worse than the _Cruciatus_, he grinned inside with determination. _You can't hide any more, you bastard._ It was not a thought of revenge, but rather satisfaction. He was going to live his life—he was going to be happy and someday marry Ginny and do weird and wonderful things with her and Luna. He was not going to let this parasite continue to feed off him anymore.

The magic hit, his scar burst open, and the world went white in agony while the sound of his own screams ripped him away from the world.

And a second later, he found himself sitting in the train station in Hogsmeade. The Hogwarts Express rested on the tracks before him, while overhead an impossibly perfect blue sky shone brightly through the trees that surrounded the station.

He sat up, trying to figure out how he got there, when motion caught his attention. He looked down and to his right and saw a mewling, monstrous _thing_ on the ground, crying piteously as it waved scaly arms and legs.

"Quite unappealing, is it not?" Dumbledore said.

Harry blinked and found the headmaster standing across the twisted baby from him, looking down with an expression of regret. "Headmaster, what are you doing here?" Harry asked. "This is a mindscape, I'm certain of it."

Dumbledore smiled at him. "Ah, quite the student you have become, Harry. I do wish…well, this is a time for regret, is it not? I regret so many things, you see. I regret not caring for my sister better. I regret my time with Gellert Grindelwald and the way that relationship shattered my already damaged family; I regret that I did not do more to help Severus and your parents. Most of all, though—most of all, I regret not taking you in myself. Like those you despise, all I could see was the scar and what it represented."

"And what was that, Headmaster?"

Dumbledore pointed at the monstrosity on the ground. "This, dear boy: This is Voldemort. Tom Riddle. This was the portion of his soul that resided in your scar. Only now, at the end of the line, do we see."

Harry felt a touch of panic. "End of the line?"

"We are dead, Harry. While I was loathe to admit it, and your colleagues refused to do so, this one truth was inescapable. There is no way to remove a soul fragment from a Horcrux without breaking it; and there is no way of removing a soul fragment from a living Horcrux without killing it. You are dead, Harry."

Harry turned his head at a distant sound. It was a familiar voice, screaming his name from a long, long way away. "So now what?"

"Well, that is the question, isn't it?" Dumbledore said. "Death comes to us all, and with each death a soul must step onto that train and leave this realm for the next great adventure. But unlike me, my boy, you came with two souls."

Harry remembered Dumbledore's plan. "So in the end, I arrived at the same point you always wanted."

"No, my dear boy, I never wanted this. I spent the first five years of your time with the Dursleys pursuing every avenue available to find an alternative, but there was none. So, realizing that you must die, I then began to do everything I could to ensure such a death did not have to be permanent. Whether through the cleansing ritual, or by Voldemort's wand, I knew you would arrive at this point. But if I am honest with myself, I am glad you took the route you did. I could feel your happiness, my boy, when you walked in. You and Ginevra glow, Harry. Your magic felt as wonderful to me as holding Fawkes has. I can see it, and it just brings home all the harder, the depths of my folly. I thought hardship would make you strong enough to do what needed to be done. But now I see that it is love that will give you the strength you need."

Dumbledore leaned down and lifted the bundle in his arms. It continued to writhe and whine. "Harry, you must listen to me now, for I don't have much time. The way calls to me, you see, and I so very much wish to rest. I have left memories in my office in a locked cabinet. The key is a golden skeleton key I have left in my desk. I have left you these memories in my will. Additionally, when it is over, you must take my wand. It is the Elder Wand of legend. If you do not take it, Voldemort may find it and use it against you."

"Professor, I don't…"

"It is a relief, my boy," Dumbledore said kindly. "The poison hurt ever so much, you see. It robbed me of every pleasure and left me no relief. I am ready for the next great adventure to begin, Harry. And I shall take this one with me. One death, one soul, as it should always be."

Dumbledore stepped past Harry toward the train, pausing just before the steps. "I am sorry for the role I took in your unhappiness, Harry. I truly feel sorrow for that. Cherish your loves, and any children she may bear you in the years to come. Love her always, and maybe, with time, you might think upon my memory kindly. Goodbye, Harry."

With that, Dumbledore turned and stepped onto the train, and almost immediately the Express began to pull away from the station. Over the din of the train, Harry could hear voices calling his name again. "I'm coming," he whispered.

A sudden, violent pain tore through his chest, as if he were struck by a terrible weight. The pain hit again and again with an increasingly fast tempo. Around him the Hogsmeade station began to blow away before a great rush of wind. He fell to his knees as the pain in his chest grew even worse somehow, and then to his back on the floor of the station platform. Overhead, the impossibly blue sky faded into a white color, while the wind howled out his name.

"_Harry! Harry! Wake up! Oh Merlin, it can't be! You were supposed to stop it if he was in danger!"_

Was that Ginny? He wanted to tell her it was all right, but he could not speak. The pain his chest grew worse and worse as the wind rushed in his ears, sweeping away all evidence of Hogsmeade until it was only Harry that remained.

From the white, he saw a face staring down at him. It was a woman's face, with red hair similar to Ginny's, but her face was more angular, more mature, whereas Ginny's was more oval. Brilliant green eyes gathered the light of the world as she smiled down at him.

_I love you so, my son, _the woman whispered to him.

"Love you too, mum," he said, trying with all his might to smile at her.

"Harry? Harry! Healer Hopkins, he said something! He said something!"

Harry closed his eyes, trying his best to ward off the pain from his chest. The voices sounded distant, but still distinct. "Merlin's bones! His heart's started again." This must have been one of the healers.

"How?" Another unfamiliar voice—another of the healers, perhaps?

"I don't care!" This was a familiar voice—his Ginny. Ginevra—his one and only; his everything. "Love you, Ginny," he whispered.

All speaking stopped for a moment before he heard a loud sob and felt gentle arms around his head, and gentle though wet lips on his. "Oh Harry," she whispered.

He forced his eyes open and saw not white, or blue, but the distant capstone of the buttress supporting the headmaster's roof inside his ritual chamber. And under that, dominating his field of vision was Ginny's tear-wrought face. Her eyes and nose were red and runny—he loved her so much, but she did not look good when she cried.

"Dumbledore's dead," he whispered. It took too much effort to do more than that.

"Yes," Ginny said. "How did you…"

"He talked to me," Harry continued. "He took Tom with him on the train. He said…he said to take his wand. Not to let Voldemort have it."

He saw Ginny look up at others around the room, then back down at him before she nodded resolutely and disappeared from his field of vision. She returned moments later with Dumbledore's wand in her hand. "It feels cold," she said. "Dead."

"Harry?" Lupin, Harry was sure. A moment later his father's last friend squatted down into his field of vision. "How do you feel?"

"Chest hurts."

"I should say so, your heart was stopped for nearly five minutes," a healer said. Harry did not know the man, nor did he care to. "I just don't understand how it could start again."

"I had two souls," Harry whispered. "But only one has to pass on. Help me sit up."

Two sets of arms helped him up, and he knew instinctively they belonged to Ginny and Luna. He could tell by their magic, but also by their smell—Luna wore Hermione's perfume because she could not pick out a scent on her own without picking the worst, and Ginny smelled faintly of lilacs. Both of them held him steady against their chests, while he looked around the office. Nearby, the third healer was kneeling beside the crumpled form of Albus Dumbledore.

"He said he was in pain," Harry said, finding it easier to speak now. "That he was ready to die. I'm glad he found peace."

"How is he?" Harry turned and saw one of the two cloaked Unspeakables querying the healer. From the speed and intonation, he guessed it was Zeus.

"I don't understand it, but he appears to be in excellent health," the healer nearest Harry said. "In fact his scar is already healing—the residual dark magic there is completely gone. All fears aside, the ritual appears to have been successful."

"Excellent," Zeus said. "_Obliviate!"_

Even as Zeus erased the healer's memories, Adonis did the same to the two others healers. In moments, Remus escorted the two confused wizards and one witch through the Headmaster's Floo. In the safety of the ritual chamber, which held no portraits, the two Unspeakables removed their cowls, while Remus returned a moment later alone.

"Hello, Harry," Adonis said with a brilliant smile. "How do you feel?"

"Like death warmed over," Harry deadpanned.

"I have no humour at all," Luna said, "and even I know that was terrible."

"I think it was brilliant," Ginny said, sniffing a little.

Zeus knelt down beside the still sitting young wizard and ran several diagnostic charms before he nodded in satisfaction. "It's gone, Harry. The soul fragment is gone."

"And so is Dumbledore," Harry said.

"True," Adonis said. "We're going to have to act fast to keep Voldemort from taking advantage of the loss."

"What are we going to do?" Ginny asked.

"We're going to lie, of course," Adonis said. "I'm quite good at it, you know. Right now our resident metamorphmagus is busy protecting the Minister's niece. So we'll have to use other methods to convince the world that Dumbledore still lives."

"Oh, that is most exciting!" Luna declared. "Can I help?"

"We'll see," Xenophilius said in a non-committal fashion. "So, what's this about you and my daughter, Potter?"

"Oral only, so far," Luna said with a dreamy smile. "He practices on me to be a better lover for Ginny. But I do continue to hope for more when they allow. His penis is really quite lovely."

Harry was too tired to blush. Instead, overwhelmed by everything, he began to laugh softly. With their help, he climbed to his feet so that he could walk over to the headmaster. Fawkes stood beside the old man's head, crooning softly.

Harry knelt down and gently rolled the body over onto his back. "I'm sorry, Fawkes," Harry said. "He's gone."

The phoenix crooned some more before it looked up at him. It was not a burning day at all, but with a sudden flash of heat Fawkes disappeared in a ball of fire, quickly collapsing to a pile of ash. From the midst of ash, a phoenix chick emerged.

"It is a little known fact, but phoenixes will only bond with a sport," Xenophilius said. "Zumadi in Brazil has one. Take him—his burning is a way for him to leave Albus behind."

Gently, with a feeling of awe, Harry bent down and lifted the still hot chick from the ash and stared at him. "Hello again, Fawkes," he said. "If you wish to stay with me, Ginny and I will take good care of you."

He felt more than saw Ginny lean down beside him and rest her arm across his shoulders. "We will," she said.

The phoenix chirped happily at them from the palm of Harry's hand.

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading!


	49. The Peanut Gallery

I got an error when I tried to post my Chap 48 review responses. I'll try again later.

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**Chapter Forty-Nine: The Peanut Gallery**

The Saturday morning before they were to board the Express back to London, Ron walked down the stairs to the Common Room, his cheeks burning red. "Harry never came in last night," he said. "Did Ginny?"

Hermione felt her own cheeks redden. "I'm not in Ginny's room, Ron. How should I know?"

Either it was because she wasn't a good liar, or because Ron knew her so well, but he stared at her with jaw gaping and said, "She didn't, did she? Oh Merlin, did they… Potter!"

He started heading for the common room door when Hermione caught his arm. "Ron, stop! Just stop and walk with me, alright?"

"I need to talk to Harry," he said darkly.

"And your girlfriend needs to talk to you," Hermione said pointedly, still clutching his arm. "Which is more important to you?"

Ron's shoulders sagged. "This is one of those important questions, isn't it?"

"Yes, Ron," Hermione said patiently. Behind them, other students began to trickle down the stairs. Unfortunately, Seamus was one of them.

"Hey Weasley, where was Potter last night? Or your sister? Demelza says she wasn't in her bed all night."

"Stuff it, Finnigan," Ron said, cheeks burning.

"Sounds like Potter already…"

Rolling her eyes, Hermione flicked her wand, cutting short the boy's crude comment with a spell chain that began with "_Silencio_" and ended with Seamus Finnigan hanging upside down a foot off the ground with his boxers flying free.

"Brilliant," Ron breathed.

Hermione, though, wasn't done. Most of the other students had come downstairs, since they only had an hour for breakfast before the carriages began taking them to Hogsmeade. "All of you listen up," she said. "I know what the rumours are, but I'm telling you right now to remember who you are talking about, and what those two did for us this year. I don't care what you've heard or what you think you know, nothing leaves this room, or I swear to Merlin I will make your lives hell next year. Do you understand me?"

It was a testament on Hermione's own reputation that not even the seventh years tried to challenge her. Rather, the Gryffindors merely nodded their acceptance. Hermione released Seamus without further comment, and they all headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"You know what's going on, don't you?" Ron asked.

"I know a little," Hermione confessed. Within the hall, they were startled to see Professor McGonagall sitting at the throne like Headmaster's seat at the table. Of course, the Headmaster had already announced his pending retirement, but it was still surprising to see her there.

"Come on, Ron," Hermione said, taking her boyfriend's hand and walking quickly to the faculty table.

"Ms. Granger, Mr. Weasley," McGonagall said in greeting. "I trust you both did well on your OWL examinations?"

"I'm sure Ron did very well," Hermione said, as if her own performance was a given. Lowering her voice so as not to be overheard, she continued, "Professor, have you heard anything about Harry? Have they started yet?"

Ron stared from Hermione to McGonagall, and then paled when he saw the professor purse her lips in genuine worry. "I saw Miss Weasley and Miss Lovegood earlier this morning, but as far as I know they are now all in the Headmaster's ritual chamber. From what I understand, they will not make the train. The Senior Undersecretary is aware of the arrangement. When they have recovered, they should Floo directly to your home, Mr. Weasley. If all goes well, they may very well be there before you."

"Okay, thank you, Professor," Hermione said. "Have a good summer."

"And you as well."

The two teens walked back to the table, where Neville was talking with Dean and Seamus. "Hermione, what's going on?" Ron asked quietly.

"They're doing a ritual," Hermione said, in a low voice. "Do you remember, after Malfoy cursed Luna? Harry missed three days?"

"It was magical exhaustion," Ron said. "That's what Ginny told me."

"She was lying, Ron. It was a purification ritual that almost killed him. They're doing it again this morning."

Ron tripped and would have fallen if not for her hands on his arms. They made it back to the table in time for him to say rather loudly, "If it bloody-near killed him last time, why are they doing it again?"

"Doing what?" Neville asked.

Hermione glared at Ron, who sagged. "Another one I messed up?"

"Please just don't talk any more this morning," she said. "And Neville, I'm sorry but it's not my story to tell."

At the table, McGonagall stood. "Students of Hogwarts, I wish to bid you all a productive and enjoyable summer vacation. As Professor Dumbledore announced last week, this was his last year here at Hogwarts. This morning, the Board of Governors confirmed my appointment as your new Headmistress. So next year it will be our very own Professor Filius Flitwick who will be meeting the First Years as the Deputy Headmaster."

Most of the students there applauded the popular charms professor until McGonagall raised her hand to continue.

"This summer also carries risks that we have not had to face in many years," McGonagall said. "For this reason, Professor Proudfoot and a team of twenty Aurors will be on the Hogwarts Express. Among their other duties, they will be handing out useful information to all students to share with their families. Be careful, my young friends, and more importantly be safe. Without you—the students—this place would have no meaning. Goodbye for now, and a safe journey."

An hour later, settled into their compartment alone on the train, Ron once again demanded to know what was happening. "It's his scar, Ron," Hermione explained after putting up privacy charms. "After the last ritual, Ginny told me that there was a soul fragment in Harry's scar, and that's why he had visions from Voldemort. This cleansing ritual is different than what they used in the Department of Mysteries and they think it might destroy the fragment, but it's also going to hurt Harry really, really badly. That's why he's staying here."

"And last night?" Ron demanded.

Hermione bit her lip and looked down at her knees.

"That bastard," he said. "He shagged my sister, didn't he?"

"No, Ron," Hermione. "You've got it wrong—I think _she_ shagged _him_. She had it planned for Friday night because of the ritual. She wanted to share that with him, in case…well, in case he didn't survive. She did it with him because she loves him, Ron."

He stood from the bench and turned around, not saying a word. Finally, Hermione stood and hugged him from behind. "Ron," she whispered, "they've been together for a few years now. Can you imagine either one of them with anyone else? Don't be mad at him. Be happy he has a girl who loves him so much she would share something like that with him, and that she has a boy who loves her so much he would die for her."

"Mum's going to kill 'em," Ron said.

"She'll never know."

Ron snorted. "She'll know. She'll take one look at them and she'll know. She spotted right off when Bill shagged that Muggle girl in Ottery St. Catchpole, and they caught him at it the very next night. Mum always knows."

"And will she know with us?"

She felt him stiffen in her arms, before he slowly turned around and stared down at her, lips agape. She liked that he was already a head taller than she was—there was something nice about being able to snuggle up next to him under his chin. "Ron," she said slowly, careful not to break his brain, "someday, you and I will share that. Not today, not this summer, but someday. It's something that happens between committed, long term couples. I'm not going to tell you I love you, because we're only sixteen years old, but I will say that I like you very, very much. I can see a time, if you keep trying to be the best man you can, that I will love you. And when that day arrives, if you feel the same, then we will probably do what Harry and Ginny did last night. Would you want Ginny to come and hex me when she finds out?"

"Why would she do that?" he asked.

"Exactly," she said. "So why would you go hex your best friend because you found out about them?"

"But you're my best friend," Ron said.

Hermione smiled, truly smiled, and pulled him down for a long, luxurious kiss. "Good answer," she said.

She jumped back and almost fell at the sound of a loud knock breaking through the privacy charms. With a disgruntled look which was shared by Ron, she pulled the blinds and blinked at the sight of Professor Proudfoot. She cancelled her privacy charms and said, "Professor, how did you…?"

"Know you were in here? Process of elimination," he said. "May I step inside?"

Hermione nodded and backed away as first Proudfoot, and then a second man in Auror robes stepped in carrying a box a square foot in size. "Granger, Weasley, this is Auror Antonin Savage, and in his hands are supplies I want you and Weasley to pass out to the DADA club members."

"Supplies?" Hermione asked.

"The kids in the club have almost all been flagged by the DMLE as at-risk targets," Savage said. He was a tall, lanky man with a sparse beard and thinning brown hair. "Officially the Ministry cannot play favourites by providing certain families additional security over others. So this is strictly a function of your club."

He put the box down for Hermione to open. Inside were pins, dozens of yellow pins, with simple Happy Faces on them. "Daniel, I need to leave," Savage said.

Proudfoot nodded his thanks as the taller man turned and left. Once he was gone, Proudfoot closed the door and replaced Hermione's privacy wards. "Alright, you two, listen up," he said. "The Minister knows damned well that Voldemort is going to retaliate for what Potter did this term. He hasn't yet because Hogwarts is too big a target. But we're sure that within days, he's going to start targeting Gryffindor and Hufflepuff student homes. Those pins contain Portkeys and _Protean_ communication charms. Tap it once, and it will open up a magical channel just like a radio to a Rapid Reaction team from the Ministry. Tap it twice and shout 'safety' and it will take whoever is wearing it, and whoever is touching the person wearing it, to a safe location maintained by the Ministry. That box is expanded magically, so there should be enough there for everyone in the club, including school-leavers. Make sure you get them all passed out on the train, and make sure every student knows to wear that pin every minute of the day."

"That's awesome," Ron said. "Why didn't they do something like this in the last war, though?"

"Because they're bloody expensive," Proudfoot said, "and…well, no one thought about them at the time. There's a reason You-Know-Who tried to kill the Minister. She's smart, maybe even smarter than you, Granger, and she knows her business. So, do you both understand?"

"Yes, sir," Hermione said. "Will you be coming back next year?"

"Hell no, I hate kids," Proudfoot said with a savage smile. "I served my timeout, now I'm getting my red robes back so I can do my own job. You'll have a new defence professor next year."

With that, the professor left the two teens alone in their cabinet. "Blimey," Ron said.

"I know, it's incredible the Ministry would do this," Hermione agreed.

Ron, though, shook his head. "Not that."

She turned and said, "What?"

"That someday I may get to shag the smartest, sexiest witch of our age," he said, grinning madly.

"Only if you keep being good," she said sternly.

"Yes, ma'am!"

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Molly Weasley was there waiting for them when Hermione, Ron and the twins climbed off the train with their trunks. She gave each of them, including Hermione, crushing hugs. "Hermione, dear, Arthur spoke to your parents yesterday morning. They are going to be in a training session for the month. Something to do with a license?"

"Well, yes, they have to get licenses to practice dentistry in Australia," Hermione said. "They told me they were going to do that."

"Well, Arthur let them know that you were perfectly welcome to stay with us until they were done and they agreed. How do you think you did on your OWLs?"

"I'm a little nervous about History of Magic," she admitted.

"And you, Ron?"

He shrugged. "I did alright, I guess. Hermione helped a lot."

Molly beamed brightly at Hermione before turning her narrowed eyes on the twins. "And you two? You remember your father's ultimatum, so did you uphold your side of the bargain?"

"We'll see in July," Fred said.

George said, "But we took seven NEWTs each and did fine, so all is well."

"Ultimatum?" Hermione asked.

"Arthur promised to match Harry's investment with a loan for their shop," Molly said with more than a mere hint of pride. "He removed all the enchantments on that old car and sold it to a friend of Aunt Muriel's, and put a hectare of our land up as collateral with the goblins."

Hermione blinked in surprise, but saw the twins lose their normally mischievous looks. "We'll do him proud, Mum" George promised solemnly. "We'll have the loan paid back within five years, with interest!"

Walking to the station Floo, Ron said to Hermione, "Mum said Dad doing that was the only way to make the twins actually stay the whole year and sit their NEWTs. If they don't get at least five NEWTs, loan's off."

"Think they did it?" she asked.

Ron grinned. "The twins are brilliant. Not smart like you, but still smart. They just never cared about anything before except the shop. This made them care—bet a galleon they got perfect Os across the board."

They arrived at the Burrow at dusk, but the house was empty when they arrived. "That's odd," Molly said. She quickly checked the house wards and then the family clock and saw Harry and Ginny were still at school for some reason. She made a note to ask Arthur about it when he got home from work, "Well, I'm to the kitchen to start dinner. Hermione, dear, would you mind helping me?"

"Of course not, Mrs. Weasley," Hermione said.

"It's Molly, dear. Come now. Boys, please put your things away and wash up."

"I'll get your trunk, Hermione," Ron offered.

She thanked him with a quick smile over her shoulder. "Quite the catch, that one is," Fred noted after the women left.

"It's always the brainy ones, y'know," George added.

"Another falls to the Weasley Charm," the two intoned. "So, tell us where Harry and Ginny were last night, and why they aren't here now?" they said, levitating both theirs, Ron's and Hermione's trunks up the stairs as they walked behind.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

An hour later, as Molly was placing warming charms on three plates of food and the boys were cleaning up, the family fireplace flared green before disgorging Arthur Weasley. The man looked utterly exhausted with slumped shoulders and rings under his eyes.

"Arthur, dear, where are Harry and Ginny?" Molly asked.

"I'll tell you, love, if you'd be willing to pour me a measure of brandy. Is that shepherd's pie I smell?"

"Oh silly me," Molly said, sure if it was drastic news he'd tell her before taking his supper. "Come sit and I'll pour you a turn. The food is still warm for you."

"Hermione," Arthur said as he hung his work robes on a stand by the fireplace. "Weasleys. Come sit back down, please. Forgive me if I eat and speak—it was quite the day at the Ministry, and then Hogwarts after. I've not had a bite since this morning."

Molly set a glass of liquor in front of him before sitting across the table from him. The twins took their seats on one side of the table while Hermione and Ron sat across from them. Mr. Weasley took a long pull of brandy and then a bite of shepherd's pie before he even began to speak.

"First off, we received intelligence that there was going to be a kidnapping attempt on Harry," he said. "It came from a very good source, and so Kingsley organized a raid. I'm sorry to say that most of them got away. The one we did catch wasn't in good enough shape to offer any testimony as to who they were, other than the fact that they spoke an oddly accented Spanish."

He took a few more bites and finished off his brandy. Molly, anticipating his needs, simply levitated a larger decanter to the table. Arthur beamed at her and poured a second glass. "Second, Harry died this morning."

Hermione stopped breathing as Arthur slowly chewed; in fact the whole table stared while he finished his bite. He looked up and smiled weakly. "Sorry, rather bad place to stop for a bite, wasn't it? He was dead for about five minutes, or so I'm told."

"Arthur!" Molly screeched as she slapped the back of his head, hard.

Arthur grinned weakly. "Forgive me, dear. Joking side, the ritual was just as bad as Ginny feared it would be, and the poor lad screamed until his heart stopped. Thank Merlin the healers were able to get it started again. He's at Hogwarts now with Ginny, a specialized healer and Madam Pomfrey. But there is some other, rather distressing news."

"Mr. Weasley," Hermione said, "please don't take this wrong, but that was an awful thing you did. Please don't do it again."

He smiled sadly at Hermione. "I'm sorry, dear. Weasley humour."

"It'll either grow on you," Fred said.

"Or you'll go barmy and kill us all," George added.

"Arthur?" Molly said, somehow sensing that Arthur was more serious.

"In truth, Molly, we knew it was coming," Arthur said. "Children, Headmaster Dumbledore did not survive the ritual. Evidently he suspected he might not—when we entered his office we found his portrait already hung, though sleeping, his will resting plainly on the desk, and all his belongings packed, labelled, and ready to be delivered to his many beneficiaries. He was prepared, and I think he met his end as he wished—helping another."

Hermione couldn't help but sniff a little at the thought of the venerable old professor passing away. The twins, though, stared like the man was mad. "How can he be dead?" Fred said.

"Boys…" Arthur said.

It was Hermione who found herself explaining how the Headmaster was poisoned with the same poison that almost killed Harry. Only, there was no Ginny for the Headmaster to cry true love to save him.

"So where's Ginny?" Molly finally asked.

"She's decided to stay with Harry," Arthur said with a significant look at his wife. Between them the twins shared a knowing glance, while beside Hermione, Ron blushed a deep red.

Molly's lips parted, before her face reddened. "I see," she said. "Well, I'm sure we'll have time to discuss this once Harry is better."

"Oh course, dear," Arthur said, before tearing once more into his dinner. "This really is good, dear."

"Thank you, though Hermione here was a great help."

Hermione smiled weakly, realizing the seriousness of the silent exchange. Ron was right, and not just about his mum. His dad must have spotted it quickly enough also.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Harry and Ginny returned to the Burrow three days later, and the moment they stepped through the Floo, Hermione knew something was different. It was not just the way Ginny clung to Harry in support,; nor was it the bandage on his forehead over his scar.

No, it was his _presence_ that seemed different. It was a strange sparkle in his eyes that reminded her a great deal of Professor Dumbledore. He radiated a certain comforting warmth about him that made Hermione instantly relax. That feeling of warmth grew more pronounced as she approached, until by the time she went for her hug it was so powerful she actually stumbled and swooned a little.

She would have fallen, if not for Harry catching her. "Easy there," he said, smiling gently.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me!" Hermione confessed, embarrassed and blushing.

Arthur emerged from the fireplace behind them, followed after that by a pair of Unspeakables. "Arthur!" Molly said, "What's happening?"

"We're placing the Burrow under the _Fidelius_ charm," he said. "It was strongly suggested by the Minister, and I completely approve. I sent letters to Charlie and Bill, of course, and spoke with Percy to let them all know."

The Unspeakables continued out of the house to begin their work. Harry, meanwhile, let Ginny and eventually Hermione guide him to a couch. "Harry, dear," Molly said, flicking her eyes from her daughter to the boy she sat defiantly next to, "how are you feeling?"

"I actually feel very good," Harry assured her. "Amazingly good, I'm just really tired physically."

Molly went to the sofa and knelt down to give the boy a hug. Hermione watched as she too seemed momentarily overcome, almost falling back from it before Ginny and Ron jumped and caught her. "Harry, what was that?"

"It's his magic, Mum," Ginny said. "He can't really control it completely quite yet."

"I'm going to learn, though," Harry said. "Professor Dumbledore left me a load of books and notes, and a letter describing an Occlumency technique to help me blunt some of my aura."

"I don't understand," Molly began.

Hermione, though, understood perfectly. "It was the Horcrux, wasn't it, holding your magic back?"

Harry nodded, smiling brilliantly at her. "We thought it was always the protection Mum gave me when she died that kept the soul fragment from possessing me, but that ended when Voldemort did his rebirth ceremony. Since then, it's been my own magic holding the bit of Voldemort's essence at bay. I went into my magical maturity with this huge weight draining away almost a quarter of my magic. Then, when Snape poisoned me, it drained my magic almost to the breaking point. That's why Voldemort was able to speak to me so easily. I'm lucky it didn't possess me entirely. With the drain gone, my magic doesn't have anything holding it back. I really do feel brilliant; I haven't had a headache or a vision since I woke up. I'm just tired, that's all."

They heard a chirping from his robes and watched as he gently pulled out a partially fledged bird about the size of his foot. "And I have a new friend, it seems. This is Fawkes."

Of course, that was another story entirely.

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading! Also, Randalotoole gave it a try this time as well, so thank you!


	50. One Crazy Summer

A/N-Two things. First, no, you're not crazy, it is only Tuesday night. Because Unspeakable Thing is done, I'm going to do my best to accelerate the posting to twice a week. This is easier said that done since there is still beta reading to do, and as witnessed by this chapter, that alone is a lot of work.

And two-I'm still getting a Type 2 error every time I try to log into my forums, so unfortunately I have not been able to post responses to reviews, which is a shame because there have been some really good ones. Even if I'm not responding, please know that I _am_ reading them, and I do greatly appreciate them.

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**Chapter Fifty: One Crazy Summer**

_Author's Note: Once again, I must stress that the views and statements of characters do not reflect the views of the author. Given the anachronistic nature of wizarding society, it seems a given that homosexuality would be considered a taboo subject and a sin. After all, Dumbledore was born in an era in which people believed Homosexuality was a disease, masturbation truly did cause blindness, and women could not possible desire or enjoy sex._

The first attack occurred the second evening after the students returned home. Colin and Dennis Creevey were both in Dennis' room talking, while their parents were making dinner. Both boys wore their happy face pins and were deep in a discussion about boys, girls, and feeling different.

Dennis was a year younger than his brother, and would be entering Fourth Year. He was part of the lower year group of the DADA study club that worked under Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley. He knew how to cast a stunner, a disarming hex, and a weak but full magical shield. Colin, who would be entering his fifth year, knew the same, but could make a stronger shield, and could also produce a _Patronus_ mist—not fully corporeal yet, but enough to buy time, should a Dementor attack.

They were not discussing magic, though. They were discussing the fact that Colin feared he might be queer. Dennis shrugged. "Of course you are. Everyone knows."

Colin gasped. "Everyone! Don't you remember the story of Lucas Portermouth?"

Dennis nodded, scratching his ear nervously. "I remember. Murdered with a sign on his chest calling him a sodomite. But Colin, he was supposedly really flamboyant. Just keep your head low, marry some older bird who doesn't really want you that much, and do what you want to do."

"But I…" Both boys stopped talking when they heard the tell-tale _pops_ of apparition from outside their parents flat.

Neither moved for the first second as fear gripped them, but a moment later that fear drove them from Colin's bed and down the narrow hall to the kitchen just as the first curse blew through the front window. Colin, having the stronger magic, shouted _"Protego_" with his wand in hand. The curse struck the shield and cracked it, but did not penetrate. At the same time, Dennis ducked around his brother's shield and shouted "_Expelliarmus!"_

Both boys felt a sense of shock when they heard an angry curse and saw a wand sailing through the air into Dennis's hand.

"What's happening, boys?" their father asked anxiously.

"It's them! The blokes the booklet told us about!" Dennis said. "We have to go now!"

"Dennis, grab Mum," Colin ordered while he grabbed his dad with his left arm. With his right, he tapped his badge once and screamed, "We're under attack! Help us!"

To the shock of the elder Creeveys, the Happy Face on the pin frowned and spoke. "_Who is this?_"

"Colin Creevey!"

"_Is anyone hurt_?"

The front door exploded. "Not yet, but they're coming!"

"_Tap the pin and say 'safety'. We're on our way_!"

The boys did as they were told and disappeared with their parents just as the three black-clad, silver-masked wizards rushed into the home. "Where's my bleedin' wand?" one screamed.

Before he answered, five figures in crimson robes appeared in the small living room. Three were kneeling with their wands out pointing at different parts of the room, while the other two stood facing the opposite direction, essentially giving the grouping three hundred and sixty degree coverage. The Aurors responded faster than the Death Eaters, firing off stunners before the Death Eaters could attack.

However, one of the Death Eaters had the presence of mind to cast a shield, as the one who lost his wand fell. The third dove out of the way, and he and the shielded wizard both Disapparated away, leaving only the stunned, disarmed man in their wake.

The next three attacks occurred the very next night all over England. Dean Thomas managed to get his family to safety, but not before his ten year old sister suffered a cutting curse that would have cost her a leg, had not the Ministry safe house attendants taken her to St. Mungo's so quickly.

Unfortunately, second year Hufflepuff Eileen Spatterwhite removed her pin to take a bath, and had her head submerged when the attack started. She did not realize anything was happening until she sat up and heard her older sister screaming under the _Cruciatus, _and by that time it was too late.

It was also too late for newly turned eleven year old Lawrence Bartleby of Thetford, a Muggleborn who had not even been contacted yet, but who was on the scrolls as a future student. Neither he nor his mother understood why the men in black robes and silver masks came, or how they did the terrible things they did. All they knew was pain, and then death.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Fawkes found he liked to burrow into the crease of Harry's armpit whenever he lay down. It was a singularly strange sensation, since every time the fledgling phoenix moved, Harry had to struggle not to wiggle himself—it tickled.

Hedwig was not sure what to think of her master's new familiar. Evidently there was a pecking order among magical birds, and just as basilisks ruled at the top of all snakes, so too did phoenixes rule at the top of all magical birds. However, having just undergone a burning several days ago, Fawkes was only now getting his plumage and was roughly the size of a game hen. To Hedwig, she looked like dinner. But even as young as the reborn bird was, Fawkes could sing, and it was that song that made Hedwig finally accept him.

Fawkes was singing now as Harry lounged by the pond at the Burrow, crooning in a soft, soothing manner. Fawkes, like Hedwig, sensed Harry's pensive mood. Back in the house, Ginny and her mother were talking.

About him; about what they did. He was, by choice, far enough away that he could not hear even the loudest voices. Though he felt better in many ways than he could remember, the odd physical fatigue lingered. The healers warned him it would; that while his magic revived him and kept any serious brain damage from occurring, for five minutes his body was well and truly dead.

Or mostly dead, he amended with a dry smile.

Fawkes crooned and Hedwig barked; Harry felt a pair of familiar magical presences. "Hello, you two," he said, a minute before Ron and Hermione sat down beside him. He noted that Hermione sat between them, but much closer to Ron.

"They've been going at it for a while now," Ron said.

"I figured," Harry said. He reached up with his left hand and gently patted Fawkes on his other arm. "Anyone hurt yet?"

"Lots of tears and harsh words," Hermione said. "She's like her mum in a lot of ways."

"She's a lot smarter," Ron said without hesitation. "Mum's smart in some things, but Ginny's brilliant. Mum's the one crying because half the time Ginny's winning the arguments. Has dad already spoken to you?"

"_Harry, I realize by this time that treating you like children would be foolish. But I hope you can understand that Ginny will always be my precious little girl. What I'm saying is that…well, I would be proud to make you a member of this family by marriage as well as love. I won't try to control what you do alone, but I do ask that while you and Ginny are at the Burrow, you respect our wishes and the limits we place on all our children."_

Both he and Mr. Weasley were horribly uncomfortable with the conversation, but even Harry had realized it needed to be said, and he agreed readily to Mr. Weasley's request. "Yeah, we talked, it was good," he said. "Your dad is pretty nice."

"Yeah, he'd have to be, to handle mum," Ron muttered.

"Mrs. Weasley is a wonderful woman!" Hermione said, a trifle too quickly.

"I know that," Ron said, snorting. "But she's also…_Mum_. She's always there, poking her nose in, whether it's good or not. Ran Bill and Charlie off entirely, she did."

"She's better since then, Ginny says," Harry said. "You know, Ron, adults make mistakes too. Just look at Dumbledore. She probably did run Bill and Charlie off, but the fact that Percy and the twins stayed makes me think she learned from it. And I'll tell you, Ron, I would give anything—_anything_—to have had a mum and dad as good as what you have."

Ron looked into the pond before skimming a stone across. "I know, Harry," he finally said. "And really, they might as well be yours too. For all intents and purposes, you're already my brother."

"Same here," Harry said quietly. "So you'd better take care of him, Hermione."

"Haven't I always?"

"Yes," both boys said quickly, before laughing at themselves.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Finally, the Talk, as it was called, came to an end to everyone's relief. The twins were always busy in their room, developing their products for the shop they planned to open, which left the two young couples to their own devices. After a week of lazing about, Harry and Ginny decided it was time to start training again, and the four of them Flooed to the Rookery.

Instead of training, they found Adonis, Zeus, Croaker and newly appointed Unspeakable Devon Williamson in a terse council. Zeus looked up at the four with a speculative expression. "Apollo, Artemis, you have good timing. Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger, I'm afraid I have need of your friends for the next few days. Could you please let Mrs. Weasley know they are on duty?"

Knowing when not to argue, Hermione and Ron disappeared back into the Floo, while Harry and Ginny approached the table. "What's happening?" Harry asked.

"Retribution strikes across the country," Williamson said in an exhausted tone. The former head of the DMLE was one of Amelia Bones' most trusted allies during the first part of her term. Though he had knowingly taken the fall for Daphne Greengrass' death, there was no way the Ministry was going to let talent like him go. So now he worked for the Department of Mysteries.

"We've tried to keep the attacks out of the magical papers as much as possible," Adonis said, "and that's been helped a great deal by your study club. The four wizards we caught were captured because the students were able to stun or disarm them before we even arrived—the pins are definitely working—without them, the student population of Hogwarts would have been decimated already. But even so, we've lost four kids—two of whom were Muggleborns who haven't even received their letters yet."

"How would they know who the new students are?" Ginny asked. "Daddy says the Ministry doesn't maintain that list, only Hogwarts does."

"Snape," Harry said grimly.

"That's our working hypothesis," Adonis said. "Snape would have had access to the scrolls, and the Student Scroll automatically updates for classes five years in advance for Muggleborns, or as soon as the first instance of accidental magic occurs. Whoever had a copy of that scroll would be able to target every future Muggleborn student of Hogwarts for the next five years."

"Now that they know the current students have protection, we suspect the incoming students will be the ones who they will be targeting from now on," Zeus said. "And that is why the Ministry and the DoM liaison to the Wizengamot have amended our charter. We now have open license to operate on home soil for the purpose of protecting the magical population of the United Kingdom."

"We're establishing small teams to guard the Muggleborn homes, a pair each," Williamson explained. "Each team is authorized to make contact with the family and to arrange protection with that family. Portkeys and wards are not only authorized, but encouraged. Do you both know how to make portkeys?"

"We learned last year," Ginny said.

"You're both now licensed by the Ministry," Zeus said. "It is our hope this will only be necessary for a limited time. The first expanded class of Aurors will be out of the academy soon, so the DoM assets will be able to concentrate on our primary task of finding and eliminating Horcruxes, and then Voldemort himself. Apollo, how are you feeling?"

"I'm ready, sir," Harry said, telling the honest truth.

"Very good," Adonis said. "We're not doing a group briefing because of the risk of this going public. Understand—we can't afford to lose the Muggleborn students, either to death, or to fear and panic. The Muggleborns help keep our breeding pool large enough to for us to remain viable and strong, and frankly provide an economic boost that we must have to survive as a separate society. Rest assured Voldemort knows this as well." He handed the pair a thick envelope. "This is your target's information. In the corner by the door you'll find rucksacks that have been expanded to hold the equipment list for a long-term observation mission. There are also charmed glamour necklaces—as good as you two are, you still look like kids, and no adult will take you seriously. The Senior Undersecretary is aware of the necessity of the mission. You have five hours to initiate contact."

"What about Luna?" Ginny asked.

Zeus frowned. "We've determined that Luna would not be well suited to a mission that depended on successfully contacting and calming the families of future students."

Harry tried not to, but he couldn't help but snort. "Right, sir. Understood."

When they returned to the Burrow, Molly was not happy. "Yes, Arthur called me on the Floo," she said when they explained they were on a mission. She looked at the young couple for the longest time, while Hermione and Ron stood nearby watching. "Teens fighting a war ... It's not right."

"We aren't the first ones," Harry said.

"No, I know that," Molly said with a sniff. "Don't hesitate to come back if you need to, or if you're hurt. Those Muggleborn families are important, I know that, but you two are important as well. I love you both." She gave them both crushing hugs before she allowed them to go get ready.

Hermione and Ron followed up the stairs in silent, moral support as Harry and Ginny packed their clothes into their rucksacks. "Well, mate, sorry I couldn't linger for Quidditch," Harry said, after shrinking his broom and placing it in the back.

"It's alright," Ron assured him. "Just take care of yourselves, right?"

"Right."

More hugs were exchanged before Harry and Ginny consulted the information on their target, ducked under his invisibility cloak, and Apparated together. They emerged on the edge of a wide field in the back of what looked like a school in the centre of the village of Cheddar, in Somerset.

Children ranging in ages of six to thirteen were playing a game of football while a ring of parents watched from the edges of the field. Still under Harry's cloak, the two walked closer to the field. With the noise of the cheering parents, teammates and coaches, Harry did not bother to be silent when he cast, "_Revelo magi_."

In his mind's eye, the field became dull and without colour, save for three figures. The first was a girl in the middle of the field, shining in full colour, perhaps nine or ten years old. The second was a boy on the side lines, perhaps seven or eight.

The third was the glimmering outline of a man otherwise invisible to the naked eye. "Someone's already here, watching," Harry said.

Ginny cast the spell and concentrated solely on the invisible watcher. "Do we move now?"

"Might be hard to explain in the middle of all the Muggles," Harry said. "I say we settle down to watch the game and see if we can get the family alone. Chances are, if there's one, there are more, and I'd rather catch them all that pick one off, get recalled to another family, and have a larger group attack this family later."

The principles, for they were magical siblings, were Kate and Henry Marks. Both attended Fairfield Middle School, and lived nearby. Kate, aside from being a magical, also proved to be quite the accomplished footballer, scoring one of the three goals that let her team claim victory.

After the game, the children's mother gave them both hugs and started walking with them back to their home. The mum was an attractive woman in her early forties, with long, curling blonde hair. Harry and Ginny rose to their feet as the family walked within a few feet away.

In the distance, the adult watcher disappeared, having evidently seen what he came for. Harry and Ginny each cast a light, mobile detection ward, followed by a confounding ward in case anyone saw them, before removing their cloak and stuffing it into Harry's rucksack.

"So how are we going to handle this?" Ginny asked as the two of them walked after the family, holding hands as always.

"Our necklaces," Harry said. "If we walk up to them looking like teenagers and try to tell them were government agents, we'll get laughed out of the town.

Ginny looked a little disappointed. "Yes, I suppose you're right."

They paused long enough to reach into their rucksacks before removing the Department-issued charmed necklaces. The moment the charm touched their skin, their appearance changed, but not as much as Harry would have thought.

Rather than making her look like someone else, the charm made Ginny look like an older version of herself. She appeared several inches taller—her face had narrowed without the residual baby fat she had now, and she expanded about the chest and hips in ways Harry couldn't help but admit that he found the changes quite sexy.

From Ginny's perspective, Harry also grew several inches—more than she. His cheeks seemed to hollow out and grow more pronounced, and he had a definite shadow of whiskers. His shoulders broadened significantly, though his waist stayed narrow.

"Looking good, Mr. Potter."

"You too. So, since we're older now, do you think we should pretend to be married? It'd explain the casual touching," Harry said.

Ginny grinned, flushing as she did so. "Why yes, I think I could do that. So, are we ready?"

Harry grinned, and then looked after their targets. "You know, I've never just walked up to a stranger and tried to talk to them."

"Well, I have. Only time I was ever shy was around you, so I'll take the lead if you need. We'll need to talk like daddy does when he's at work, though. Imagine Percy without a brain and a backbone."

When they were within easy speaking distance, she said, "That was a brilliant goal you made, Kate."

The mother turned around, startled, while Kate—who looked like a younger, prettier image of her attractive mother—smiled and said, "Thanks! Leanne got sloppy and I just slipped it right by."

By this time they were already on a street called Mason's Way, leading to the address that their information confirmed was the Marks' home. The mother, Vivian Marks, stared suspiciously at the couple.

"Was there something else we could help you with?"

"Actually, there is," Ginny said. "We were hoping we could have just a few minutes of your time, you see…"

"I'm sorry, we don't accept any solicitations," Vivian said, as her suspicions regarding the strange couple's intentions were confirmed. "Come along, Kate, Henry."

"Mrs. Marks, I'm afraid you misunderstand," Ginny said, switching to her best imitation of her father's 'official' tone of voice. "My name is Ginny Potter, this is my husband Harry. We are with The Security Service." Harry, following her lead, removed his Unspeakable Badge that was charmed to show whatever he wanted.

Ginny did the same.

"What…what is this about?" Mrs. Marks said.

"Your safety," Harry said, speaking for the first time. "Can we go inside just for a moment to talk? I assure you, this is not a joke, and it is very important."

Vivian's hands shook as she unlocked the door to their home and let them inside. Henry stared wide-eyed and hung on his mother's skirt, while Kate hovered nearby. Once inside, Vivian led them to a comfortable parlour.

"Now please tell me what this is about?" Vivian Marks demanded.

"Mrs. Marks, what we about to tell you may seem unbelievable, but it is desperately important that you listen to everything we say," Harry said. "You and your children are in danger, and we are here to protect you. Ginny, you want to continue?"

He removed his wand and started casting detection and anti-apparition wards on the property.

"What is he doing?" Vivian asked, her voice rising.

"He is placing protections on your home," Ginny said, smiling gently. "I'm sorry for the mysteriousness of our presence. Have you been watching the… blast, Harry? What's it called?"

"The telly, love," Harry said from the kitchen where had moved in his casting.

"Yes, right, have you been watching the telly about the attacks across Britain?"

Vivian was staring at the seeming twenty-something woman in open alarm. "Yes," she said, in evident confusion.

"Well, the victims of those attacks all have something in common with your children," Ginny explained. "It was based on that evidence that our Ministry assigned us as your protection detail."

"I don't…" she began.

"Now, Gin?" Harry asked.

"Mrs. Marks," Ginny said, "I am a witch. Not a make believe girl in a costume, but a real, wand-wielding, spell-casting, magical witch. I can actually fly on a broomstick. Harry is a wizard. And we are here because Kate is a witch," Harry said.

"Excuse me?" The mother did _not_ sound happy.

"She's a witch, Mrs. Marks," Ginny said. "Kate, you turn eleven in August, right?"

"How can you know that?" Vivian asked, rising to her feet.

"Because she is on the list of attendance for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," Harry said. "Normally on the first of August, she would receive a letter inviting her to attend, and in mid-August a professor from the school ordinarily would visit since it is a lot to accept just from a letter."

Vivian jumped to her feet. "This has gone on quite long enough. I want you out of my house, right this instant!"

Harry and Ginny shared a look, and with that Harry flicked his wand and transfigured the lamp on the end table into a kneazle. Mrs. Marks paled and stumbled away from the impossible sight, but on the other side Ginny charmed the other lamp to levitate and start singing.

"Where did you ever hear David Bowie?" Harry asked over the singing lamp.

"Hermione, of course," Ginny said.

"Stop it!" Vivian screamed.

The two ended the spells, leaving the house in utter silence. "Mrs. Marks, I need you to sit down and listen to us very, very carefully," Harry began. "Magic, as you have just seen, is real. Witches and wizards live all around you, hiding behind magic, or sometimes in plain sight. We look just like you, because in many ways we are like you. My mother was just like Kate here—a witch born to non-magical parents. And Mrs. Marks, my mum was murdered when I was a baby for the same reason that Kate here may be in danger—because there are elements of the magical society who believe that 'Muggleborns', as they are called, are not fit to exist. It's stupid and wrong, but they believe it so strongly they have fought one secret war over it—and we are currently in the middle of a second one."

"Every year, magical children are automatically added to a scroll at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the premier school of magic in the UK," Ginny continued. "The scroll records future children up to five years in advance or sometimes longer. And unfortunately, dark wizards got a hold of this scroll."

"Every future Muggleborn student in the UK is at risk," Harry said. "There have already been attacks. Once the Ministry realized what was happening, they made the decision to contact these families and provide what security they could. We are agents of the Ministry of Magic working with the knowledge and cooperation of MI-5, and we are here to protect you."

"This is just unbelievable," Vivian said.

"If you think it's bad now, wait until you see your daughter on a broom," Ginny said. "As good a footballer as she is, I bet she'll be an outstanding Quidditch player."

"Broom? Quidditch?" the girl said brightly.

"Of course," Harry said. "Witches ride brooms, didn't you know?"

"And wizards," Ginny said archly. "Mr. Firebolt."

After the worst of the shock wore off, they settled down to an afternoon tea while Harry and Ginny, looking like a couple in their twenties, explained what was happening in the magical world, and some of the reasons behind it. They spoke about how the Ministry of Magic was working closely with the Prime Minister and the security agencies, and how the education system worked. He even removed his broom and flew slowly about the house to Vivian's astonishment, and the children's excitement.

Naturally, when Heath Marks arrived home that evening to discover two unexpected houseguests who both looked like they were in their mid-twenties, they had to do it all over again. Mr. Marks, however, proved even more intransigent than his wife, and ended up saying, "That's it, I'm calling the police."

"Actually, sir," Harry said, "you should call MI-5. State your name and ask for the Special Liaison office. You can use the public number."

Heath Marks, a tall man with receding brown hair, stared intently at Harry. "You're quite the gambler, young man."

"We understand this is a lot to accept. For us to do our jobs, you must accept that what we are saying is the truth. Ask directory assistance for the number and give them a call. I've not used the line myself, so it'll be interesting to see what happens. If your phone has a speaker phone function, it might be fun for us all to listen."

Staring incredulously, Heath Marks did as Harry suggested obtaining the number from directory assistance. Because of his job as a realtor he had a better telephone than most and put the phone on speaker. When the MI-5 operator answered, he said, "My name is Heath Marks. I was told to ask for the Special Liaison office."

"Thank you," came a curt, feminine voice. "One moment."

A minute later, another voice answered that Harry immediately recognized. He looked at Ginny, who grinned. "Liaison Office, who is this?" Algernon Croaker asked.

"This is Heath Marks, I'm here with…"

"Marks," the voice cut Heath off in an absent tone, as if looking. "Marks, Marks, Marks…ahhh, here we are. Katherine 'Kate' Marks, eleventh birthday falls on 3rd August, Henry Marks, age 10. Assigned to…Potter and Weasley. Are we on a speaker phone, Mr. Marks?"

Cowed, Heath said, "Yes. Who is this?"

"This is Algernon Croaker, Department of Mysteries, Ministry of Magic Level 9. Potter, Weasley, are you there?"

"We're here, Algie," Harry said.

"Any sightings?"

"There was a Death Eater under a disillusionment charm attending Kate Marks's football game when we arrived. As far as we could determine, we were not seen, but based on the scouting, it appears they are a likely target. I've established anti-apparition and intent detection wards."

"Very good. Prepare an emergency portkey for the safe house. There was another attack early this morning before we had assets in place. The rapid reaction team is standing by. Mr. Marks?"

"Yes?" Heath said, no longer as confident as before.

"I'm very sorry for the danger you find yourself in. Agents Potter and Weasley are well trained and field-tested. They are there to protect your family, so please do them the courtesy of doing as they ask. We will prepare a means for your family to escape quickly in the event of an attack and the Crown is fully prepared to relocate you at no expense if necessary. Accordingly, I strongly recommend that your family prepare emergency overnight bags, including any important papers you may wish to keep safe. Do you or your family have any questions?"

"This is real?" Mark asked.

"This is real, and the danger is real," Croaker said. "As is the resolve of the Ministry of Magic and Her Majesty's government to protect you from it. Now, I must go. Best of luck to you all."

The phone clicked, and with numb hands Heath Marks placed the receiver back in the cradle.

"So, where would you like us to sleep tonight?" Harry asked brightly.

* * *

sp

sp

**Author's Note**: Very special thanks to Teufeul1987 for Beta reading and Brit Picking, and to JR and Miles for additional beta reading! Also, Randalotoole gave it a try this time as well, so thank you! This chapter especially took some work on their part, and I greatly appreciate their help in making it better.


	51. Not Again!

**A/N-**Good news-I've posted all review responses for the past two chapters in my forums. Bad news-all the links fell off my profile. Don't know how, or why. The URL to my forums is still on my page, without the actual hyperlink, but you can cut any past it. I have no idea why the link to my homepage went away. If you know how I can fix that, please let me know.

* * *

**Chapter Fifty-One: Not Again!**

* * *

_Author's Note: This chapter contains adult content of a sexual nature that may offend some readers. In point of fact, it even skirted my comfort level, enough that I sought the opinion of my group as to whether I should even keep it. Most agreed it was necessary, and they were right given how the events serve as a catalyst going forward. Be warned, and feel free to skip the events following their confrontation with Death Eaters._

* * *

Ginny was on sentry when she felt the wards ripple. All their wards were passive and not magic intensive—it was not their intent to scare their attackers off but to capture them and put them down.

The Marks had been kind enough to prepare a sleeper sofa for the young agents on the ground floor, which both magicals agreed was necessary to be better prepared in the event of an attack. Ginny reached over and shook Harry—he came awake instantly. "I feel it," he whispered.

He was on his feet a second later while Ginny ran upstairs to get the family ready. Harry, meanwhile, started casting a nasty ward around the door frame while his heart thudded rapidly in his chest. When he was done he ran to the back door to do the same there.

Moments later the Marks family came quietly down the stairs with Ginny on their heels. Heath and Vivian looked stoic while trying to encourage their two frightened children. Behind them, Ginny walked holding a pink sheet in her hands. Harry sensed a tendril of magic from it and knew it was now a portkey.

"All right, everyone please grab this sheet," Ginny whispered. "It will magically take you to a safe house where a Ministry employee and a liaison with Her Majesty's Security Service will be there to assist you. It will be a little disorienting, but I promise you you'll be fine."

"I found five," Harry said softly from the front door. "They're casting _revelo_ charms. As soon as they've confirmed you're in the house, we'll get you out."

"Why not leave now?" Heath Marks whispered.

"Because we don't just want to protect you," Harry said with a tight grin. "We want to take these people down so they can't attack anyone else."

All of them fell quiet when they heard a rustle and a footstep outside. Ginny cast a detection charm and nodded. "It's time."

"Good luck," Heath said a moment before he and his family disappeared.

After they were gone, Harry and Ginny quickly slipped their Unspeakable Robes on, while outside the Death Eaters posted two of their number to the back door to cut off any escapes. Once in their cowls, Harry and Ginny opened up communication. "Control, this is Apollo, target family is away, five enemy contacts on premises, requesting back up."

Surprisingly, it was Luna who answered. "Apollo, there have been thirty simultaneous attacks so far; all assets are in the field. I would come myself, but I have to stay and coordinate team movements."

Harry and Ginny exchanged worried glances. "Understood. We're…."

An anti-apparition ward settled in over the house. "Shit, they know we're here," Ginny muttered.

Not only did the Death Eaters know the two were there, they evidently had learned from the Department of Mystery's tactics over the winter holiday. Breaking glass heralded the presence of five separate muggle grenades. The two had enough time to summon a joined shield before the grenades exploded all around them.

Their shields were powerful enough to protect their bodies from the physical damage, but in this case magic did not override physics. The explosive force of the grenades was sufficient to blow the teens off their feet even with their shields, not to mention the fact that it left both stunned and disoriented.

The three in the front of the house blew the door. The first through screamed as Harry's ward burned his body to ash; the second was actually pushing against the first one's back and so could not help but get caught in the same ward.

The third, seeing his two companions burned into vapor, blasted the door frame out of the wall entirely before risking entry. In the back of the house, the remaining two Death Eaters came in through windows, by sheer luck avoiding similar wards on that door.

Harry, stunned and deafened from the explosions, was still able to cast a blasting curse at the two from the rear. Both raised their shields, but Harry's curse blew through the shield on the right and caught the Death Eater in the chest. The man could not even scream as his chest exploded out of his back so forcefully it actually ripped his torso out without the rest of his body even moving. He simply collapsed into a spineless heap on the floor.

Ginny cast at the man in the front, but she was so blinded by the grenades she missed. The man laughed before stunning her twice. Harry was on the very of taking the second man out when the one who stunned Ginny stunned him as well.

Harry stumbled and raised his wand again, until a second and then third stunner finally took him down. In the silence that followed, broken by the very distant sounds of muggle sirens, the two Death Eaters stared at each. "Bugger was a strong one," he said.

"You think it could be Potter?" the first asked.

"One way to find out."

With the cowls off, the two Death Eaters stared down at the most wanted teens in Voldemort's eyes. "Well," the one said. "This is a ticket to the inner circle if I ever did see one."

"Yeah, you'd think," the other man said, right before he slashed a knife across his companion's throat. He followed it with a quick killing curse before looking back down at the pair. He cast a cleaning charm on the knife before he reached down and cut a huge swath of Ginny's hair. "Lucky we need you alive, _mon peu d'amour." _

He then turned to Harry, stunned the boy once more, grabbed his arm and then the two disappeared. After the lessons of the past few days, the Death Eaters had started to tune their anti-apparition jinxes to allow themselves to apparate only.

A moment before the constables arrived, a quick reaction team from the Ministry broke through the already failing anti-apparition wards. They found two dead Death Eaters, residual magical traces of two more, and a stunned Ginny Weasley in Unspeakable robes. The lead Unspeakable lowered his wand.

"Bollocks," Adonis said.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Harry woke to the most astounding feeling of a woman's lips on him. He blinked bleary eyes and wondered why it felt like a heavy went blanket was over him, and looked down in muffled astonishment at the red head bobbing over his Little Harry.

"Ginny?" he whispered.

She looked up, and it was indeed his Ginny. She reared up on her knees to clearly show him her young, astoundingly beautiful body. "Yes, it's me, my love," she said. It sounded just like her, but even in his muffled state her intonation seemed wrong. He tried to sense her magic, but the blanket muffling his brain played havoc with his magic as well.

"What are you doing?"

"Fucking you," she said simply as she swung a leg over his lap and sank down on his very erect member. She placed both arms around his neck and pulled his face to her young breasts. "Love me, Harry. You must love me." She began bouncing wildly, while Harry's mental confusion gave way to the urgency of his body.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

He woke up and Ginny was there, and astonishingly a girl who looked just like Luna, but with larger, fuller breasts and slightly wider hips. She was now suckling him, while Ginny ran her fingers over his chest. "Do you love me, Harry?" she asked.

"I love Ginny," Harry said, still lost in that strange, heavy-lidded state.

"I'm Ginny," the woman with Ginny's face purred, while below the other woman who looked like an older Luna continued to suck him. "Do you love me?"

"Yes," Harry said, once again losing himself to his body.

"Very good," she purred.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

When he woke, it was to a circle of angels standing around him. All were tall, lithe and beautiful, and as naked as the day they were born. Voluptuous breasts hung on slim frames that flared only in the hips before trailing down long, shapely legs. Body after body, marked only by the shade of their pubic hairs, stood around him.

He tried to concentrate on their faces, but as they swayed and moved, a golden light seemed to emanate from their perfect bodies, making it impossible to focus above their perfect breasts. The line parted and Ginny approached him, also naked, but shorter than the rest. She looked like a single rose among a field of tall lilies, and yet was still stunningly beautiful to him, more than the perfect bodies that ringed him.

"Harry," she breathed, "I love you so. Do you love me?"

"Yes," he said, caught up in the golden light from the women around them.

"Do you wish to spend the rest of your life with me?" she asked.

"Yes."

She came to him then, squatting down on his penis with a half-lidded, satisfied smile. "I want to be with you for the rest of your life," she told him, writhing as she did in a way that made his head twist behind his eyes. "I want to bear you many children and make you happy. We all do. These are my sisters, they are beautiful, no?"

"Yes," Harry said, grunting as she bounced on him.

"They also love you, Harry," Ginny said. "Can you feel their love for you?"

"Yes." And he could—their golden glow felt as if it where shifting and changing around him to better fit his own magic.

"We could give you love like you could never imagine," Ginny said, pulling his face to her breasts even as she rocked on him. "We could make your life a paradise forever. All you have to do is vow yourself to me in matrimony. Marry me, Harry Potter, and I shall make you happier than you could possibly imagine."

"Oh God, yes!" Harry said, lost completely in a maze of flesh.

Still riding him, she pulled his head back and looked into his eyes. As he watched in confusion, her face began to shift before him. Ginny's hair lengthened and lightened into long, silver-yellow strands. Her beautiful, almond-colored eyes burned with the blue of a bright summer sky, until all hint of the brown was gone, and her face lengthened.

Around her, the air crackled before a stunningly gorgeous golden glow that met his magic and changed until it fit as well as Ginny's did, even better. Meanwhile, her breasts grew larger and more voluptuous. In every measurable way, she was a more mature, more sexual figure than Ginny could ever be.

"I will love you forever, 'Arry Potter," she whispered, for the first time with a trace of a French accent. "Just say 'ze words. Say, 'I, 'Arry Potter…"

Dazed by the beauty making love to him, he whispered, "I, Harry Potter…"

"do take Mirielle Fabreaux to be my wife."

"…do take Ginevra Weasley to be my wife."

Suddenly everything changed. The gold glow turned to fire that burned against his magic. The woman's intent, alluring gaze sharpened into the hateful glare of a predator. She jumped up from him, uncaring of her nudity, and lashed out a foot that caught him in the side of the head. "_Merde!_"

He collapsed against the floor, too stunned and pained to move. However, he did not slip back into the darkness, even if he kept his eyes shut. "_Comment est-ce que le petit cafard-il? _This is the third time! My cunt is getting sore! Is the boy _pederaste?_"

A second woman's voice said, "_Non, il a baisé le Weasley fille. _Even Fleur failed, and she was ze best of us._"_

The first woman growled. "_Non,_ Delacour is a traitor and a whore! Damned, we can't even just take his seed. The birth control potion has ruined it for at least another month! Control will be angry with us."

The second woman said calmly, "Then we try again. We have plenty of the girl's hair. Have another of us play her part so you can rest."

"I am strongest, the bonding must be with me if we hope to produce any sports," the first witch growled. "_Obliviate_ him, given him another dose of the confounding potion, and then have the girls work on him to get him ready. I need salve—how that boy can cum so much is _tres stupefiant._ If it does not work next time, we will _obliviate_ him into his childhood years."

As muddled as he was, Harry had time to bring up his O_cclumency_ barriers. In his mind, Ginny and Luna stood guard against the memory charm, protecting his thoughts without the casting witch being aware of it. He felt magic lifting him and levitating him gently to a bed before a gentle hand lifted his head.

"Drink, my powerful little wizard." It was the second woman—the woman who cast the _obvliate_, and she was holding a cup of cool liquid to his lips. With the touch of the fluid, Harry realized he was terribly dehydrated, and in desperation more than anything drank it.

Almost immediate the heavy blanket feeling came over him, making the mental images of Ginny and Luna waver in his mind. Then oddly, the Luna in his mind turned to face him, speaking in her normal, slightly-absent and matter-of-fact way. "_You know, Harry, that strong wizards can overcome many potions. For instance, Snape can overcome Veritaserum, and he had only a fraction of your power. Imagine what you could overcome_."

His image of Ginny turned and then flashed her breasts at him. "And mine are better than any of these Veela, aren't they?"

_They're better because they're mine._ It was the oddest thought, that any part of Ginny could be claimed as his. And yet there it was—a surge of irrational jealously rushed through him at the thought of these women—these _Veela_—trying to keep what was his away from him. Ginny was his, and he was hers.

In his anger, he loosed all bonds of his magic. Within his veins, he could feel the magic of the confounding potion burning away before the white hot power of his own magic. He opened his eyes and found himself staring into the blue-grey eyes of another Veela.

As his magic flared around him, the woman's eyes dilated and her cheeks flushed a bright, almost blistering red beyond any normal human blush he had ever seen. The blush ran down her neck, between her voluptuous breasts, even down her stomach until he could actually see her sex redden and swell. It dawned on him with a sense of shock that the non-human part of her was responding to his magic, in much the same way men responded to a Veela's natural allure.

"_Si puissant_," she breathed as she crawled onto him. "So powerful! You must let me love you! You must!"

His mind racing, Harry said, "If you want me, you must help me. Bring me my wands."

She shook her head, a moment of clarity returning. "_Non,_ _c'est impossible! _I cannot betray my sisters."

He flared his magic, putting actual effort in projecting his power around him. The Veela's body rocked and her eyes widened. Her breathing sped up and she moaned as she grabbed his arms and clung to him, trembling as the wave of intense pleasure washed through her.

"Oh, _ma petit wizard!_ I must! I must do what you ask!"

With a moan she flung herself off, and he watched as her pale, naked body flew across the spacious room to disappear through a door. It was the first time he actually noticed his surroundings, and he saw immediately that he was not in a cell. The bed he found himself in was large and circular, dominating the center of a beautifully appointed room, with wooden paneling on the lower portion of the walls and then a deep, burgundy fabric rising to the top of the twelve-foot high ceiling. There were, however, no windows at all.

Before he could do more, the Veela woman rushed back inside the room with both his Holly and his back up wand in her hand. She was flushed in a solid line down the center of her torso from her forehead to her still swollen and reddened sex, and when she saw him standing near the edge of the bed, she cried out, dropped the wand and virtually attacked him.

She had her arms around his neck, her legs around her waist, and her sex impaled on his manhood so fast he could barely even blink. Her momentum spun him around until he fell down with her under him. "Make love to me, wizard!" she cried.

His magic flared in anger, and he thrust hard into her. She cried out in ecstasy, her allure blurring her skin. The sight made him even angrier, and he thrust again, even harder. The woman squeezed him with her legs and shouted, _"Oui! Plus fort! S'il vous plait, plus fort!"_

He had enough French to understand, and in his anger of what they were doing, he complied, pounding into her until it actually hurt him. But this was not a woman he had sex with, it was a Veela, a near-human being of sensuality. Just as Fleur proved faster and more agile in the last task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, this being underneath him proved studier than a normal witch. Anger made his magic flare again, and drove his body like a tendon, until with a grunt from him and a moan from her, he finished and spilled inside her.

The flush virtually glowed as the Veela woman arched her back and screamed in release, before her eyes rolled up into her head and she passed out.

Harry backed away, suddenly assaulted by the thick pheromones the woman had released. "Holy shit, I fucked a Veela unconscious," he muttered.

A moment later, a feeling of utter disgust hit him so hard he bent over and fought not to be sick. This wasn't anything like what he shared with Ginny. He wanted to hurt the woman—he had sex to hurt her. It didn't matter at all that she wanted it—all that mattered was that he took something beautiful and perverted it into something disgusting.

He spun away from the unconscious Veela, looking desperately for something to wear. Finding nothing, he conjured himself a pair of blue jeans and a simple jumper, and got dressed without once removing his eyes from the door. He felt absolutely filthy with the juice of the Veela clinging to him, but he didn't dare take the time to try to clean himself. If he were in his right mind, he would have just stunned the woman instead of doing what he did. Instead, he gave in to base instincts of revenge, only to give the woman exactly what he wanted while making him hate himself for what he did.

_What will Ginny think of me?_ It did not dawn on him, even for a moment, to lie to her.

The door opened, and Mirielle Fabreaux walked in looking like Ginny Weasley, still naked, surrounded by two other Veela. The two women behind her looked like they could be sisters, with silver-blonde hair, blue eyes and perfect bodies. All three stopped and stared at the tableau before them—one of their number passed out on the bed with a full Veela flush evidencing sexual fulfillment few Veela ever got to experience… and Harry fully dressed with two wands in his hand.

With a growl Harry unleashed a broad, area-wide stunner. Without their wands, the Veela could not shield. However, Mirielle at least proved to be as athletic as Fleur was. Somehow she leaped over the same wave of magic that sent her two fellow Veela flying unconscious into the room. In mid-leap she summed a fireball with her bare hand and threw it with terrible accuracy at Harry's head.

He batted it away with his spare wand and then summoned her with every bit of power he had. He caught a brief look of her eyes widening in alarm before she flew toward Harry. He stepped aside and cast a banishing charm to her already fast speed, propelling her into the far wall.

Plaster and wood alike cracked before the impact. The Veela's eyes rolled up into her head and she crumbled to the floor, leaving a bloody imprint in the wall behind her. "I'm not fourteen any more, you ugly cow," he growled.

A moment later, a blaring alarm went off. Harry crouched down waiting for an attack, but none came. Instead, he heard voices calling from beyond the door, followed by cries of alarm and spellfire.

He felt the rush of magic before he saw or heard anything, and knelt down behind his strongest shield when the door and the frame around it exploded under at least a pair of blasting charms. When the spoke and refuse faded, Harry found himself staring in astonishment at Fleur Delacour, flanked by a pair of robed Unspeakables.

"Are you unharmed, Harry?" she asked without a trace of an accent.

Harry did not remove the wand he had trained on her. "What is happening here?"

One of the Unspeakables lowered his cowl, and Harry saw Adonis's features. "Adonis, Epsilon 24563," he said.

"Where did we spend my second year holiday?" Harry demanded.

"Mostly in my classroom at Hogwarts," Adonis said, flashing his trademark Lockhart smile. "Are you all right?"

"I'm bloody angry," Harry said. "What's she doing here?"

"Helping us rescue you," Adonis said. "She came over seeking asylum right before you started school this summer, and there is no way we would have been able to infiltrate a Veela coven without a Veela guide."

"The French Ministry decided to erase all evidence of the project," Fleur explained, "including me."

She walked through the room, examining the downed Veela, until she came to the one on the bed. Her eyes widened and her cheeks flushed. "_Merde, Vereille!_ 'Arry, did you do this to her?"

"What if I did?" he demanded. "They were using Polyjuice potion to make me think one of them was Ginny!" He pointed to the collapsed Veela who still wore Ginny's body. "They were raping me!"

"Harry, are you on a birth-control potion?" Adonis asked urgently.

"Don't worry, they said my seed was ruined," Harry snarled. He stomped his feet, unleashed his magic, and screamed, "Dammit! Bugger it all!"

He saw a flash of green light and felt a wash of cold death, and spun in shock to see Fleur lowering her wand from the no longer flushed Veela on the bed. "It was a kindness," she said sadly. "What you did to her, 'Arry, it ruined her. The flush was the bonding mark—whatever you did overrode her control and bound her to your magic so strongly she would not live without you. She would go insane over time, until she died by her own hand."

All his anger froze into a tight first in the middle of his chest. "My magic made her drunk, like your allure does," he whispered. "And I was so mad, I just…"

She stepped closer to him, her expression sad, but paused a few feet away and shook her head. "Merlin, 'Arry, I can feel it from here. You have come into your full power. For Veela, your magic is a drug. It was foolish for my old Ministry to enlist the coven for you now, now that you have your full magic. You were too much for me two years ago—now you are too dangerous to be around Veela."

"I killed her," Harry said bitterly.

"_Oui_," Fleur said, with no attempt to soften the blow. "But know this; she died in a state of euphoria. She knew pleasure from you that very, very few Veela will ever experience, and no human woman could imagine. Even though I had to kill her, in a way I envy her that sensation. If not for your heart belonging to another, I would gladly bond myself to you, here and now, even though it meant I would be your slave."

"Ms. Delacour," Adonis said with a hint of warning.

"Oui, you are right, it is not my place," she said. "Come, 'Arry. Someone from the French Ministry will be here to investigate soon. We must not be here when they do."

Harry nodded, feeling numb and filthy inside, as Adonis took his arm and escorted him from the room.

* * *

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987, JR, Miles and Randalotoole for beta reading. As always, they make these chapters better than they could ever otherwise be.


	52. Coping Mechanisms

A/N: Being a mid-week post, review responses are a bit more problematic. I'll try and get responses to Chap 51 up tonight, but didn't want to delay the chapter posting. Thanks for reading!

* * *

**Chapter Fifty-Two: Coping Mechanisms**

Ginny wiped her cheeks, chiding herself for her tears as she threw Floo powder into the fireplace at the Rookery to return home.

Harry had been back for almost two months, so why was she crying?

Harry was back, but he was so angry it was making everyone at the Burrow uncomfortable. His magic bit when he walked into a room, where before it made everyone feel warm and comforted. The twins were never home any more—they had let a building for their shop and virtually lived there now. Arthur made a visible effort to stay when he was home, but his own responsibilities were so great that he was rarely home before seven on weekdays, and more often than not found himself working at least one or two weekend days. The Burrow did not have an office as such. Ginny knew it was taking a toll on her father—he had no time to himself to unwind from what was obviously a stressful and difficult job.

The worst was her mother. Molly Weasley was overbearing at times, but only because she was so deeply concerned for all those around her. Ginny never doubted, even during the worst of their arguments, that her mother loved her. She also knew, without a doubt, that Molly had come to regard Harry as one of her own.

She watched as the days passed, and her mother grew more agitated and upset that she could not hug Harry. She tried, more than once, but Harry's magic was so strong, ragged and filled with emotion that she found herself backing away and shaking her head in consternation.

They resumed training at the Rookery the week following Harry's recovery, and the intensity with which he threw himself into the course was enough to frighten Ginny, a little. He poured far more magic into his targeting drills that necessary, obliterating their target dummies with spells that should have done little more than sparked and scored the dummy's chest. Adonis dressed him down during their martial arts training when he pumped massive amounts of magic into a kick that sent the older Unspeakable flying across the ring. If Zeus had not been there with potions, it was possible Adonis would have died.

They started him on counseling sessions with Healer Richardson that same week.

The only thing good that came out of all of it was Voldemort's realization that he had a foreign mole in his operations. As a result, the attacks on Muggleborns had come to an abrupt halt.

"He's cleaning house," Adonis said during their post-training briefing. "He's been _Legillimizing_ his Inner Circle pretty harshly, and combing through his foreign recruits. Right now, he has almost as many Death Eaters from the continent as he does from England. Our efforts have actually had some success on the local front, and it's forced him to go recruiting abroad."

"What about the Veela who kidnapped Harry?" Ginny demanded.

Adonis shrugged, frowning darkly. "The incident has been swept under the rug. Most likely, the Veela colony involved was killed by the French Ministry. Yes, they kidnapped Harry, but on the other hand we invaded their territory, killed several French citizens, and took him back by force. Either action could trigger a conflict neither side wants; so it was swept under."

Ginny felt a near painful spike of magic and turned to see Harry stand and walk out of the room at the Rookery on stiff legs. She started to go after him when Adonis said, "Let him go."

She sank back down into her seat, fighting tears. Beside her, Luna sat with a completely neutral expression, which for her was an expression of pain. "He will not let me touch him," the blonde said. "Have you?"

Ginny shook her head and gave up all pretense of stoicism as she wiped her eyes. "I haven't been able to hug or kiss him since he got back, much less anything more."

She glanced up at Adonis, realizing what she'd admitted. The Unspeakable, though, merely looked at her with a speculative gaze before he reached up a wand and spelled the door closed. Another flick had the small briefing room at the Rookery sealed and secured.

"You made no secret that you were intimate with Harry," Adonis said. He turned to include Luna in his look. "Both of you."

"Wasn't that what you wanted?" Ginny asked, bitterness tainting her voice.

Adonis leaned back in his seat and rubbed his face tiredly. It was rare for the handsome man to reveal how exhausted he was, but Ginny knew the summer had been taxing for all Ministry personnel, including the Unspeakables. "Did I ever tell you that the Department asked me to take on a mistress?"

Ginny frowned. "A mistress?"

"Oh, Aphrodite knew, of course," he continued. "I could lie circles around everyone in the world but her. So we talked about it, what it would mean. The DoM will never openly use the word 'eugenics' because of its unfortunate association with Grindelwald and Hitler, but when you strip away all the euphemistic language, that's what we were doing when we paired you with Harry before either of you were even into puberty yet. It was our hope, based on your magical levels and arithmantic projections, that you would produce at least one Sport. At the very least, you should produce magically powerful children. And so would Harry and Luna."

Ginny felt her stomach clench at the thought of Luna having children with her Harry. "That was never a part of our discussions," she said, fighting to control her raging emotions.

"Of course not, you don't think Zeus would admit that he's just after super babies, do you?"

"So why are you telling us?" Ginny asked.

Adonis smiled, a hint of his Lockhart persona slipping through. "I am upper 90th percentile on both indexes, and it was calculated that I and Aphrodite would produce children above 90th percentile as well. However, there was a woman from Salem who was the granddaughter of a Sport and a Muggle—a very rare genetic combination. There were projections that showed, by a quirk of our genetics, that we could have a high probability of producing a Sport if we were paired together. The DoM knew I was very happily married and faithful to my wife, and simply did not care. They brought her over without even telling us, and forced an introduction."

"What happened?" Luna asked.

Adonis shrugged. "She was despicable. She had the very worst traits of the Americans—arrogant, snide and woefully ignorant of the larger world. It did not help that she was physically repulsive, vastly overweight, and with magic that made her feel like I was rubbing a hedgehog. The Department did not care, and formally requested that I father a child with the woman."

"Hermione mentioned one time something about artificial insemination," Ginny said. "Could you have done that?"

"Interestingly enough, that does not work with magicals," Adonis said. "Magic is largely driven by emotional intent. While they might have been able to create a pregnancy, any child resulting from it would have been a squib at best."

"You turned them down," Luna said.

"Aphrodite died," he said, his expression losing all sign of humor. "I told the Department to go to hell. They actually refused me a promotion for the next two years. Interestingly enough, Aphrodite was the last woman I was ever intimate with, and I've not felt the urge since. My magic was as closely bound to her as my emotions, and I've yet to be around another's magic that did anything more than repulse me in a romantic sense."

"I do not believe I would be ideally suited for having children," Luna said with brutal honesty that only she was capable of. "While the idea of sex with Harry is extremely exciting to me, I do not believe I would wish to experience the rigors of pregnancy nor would children thrive with me as their mother. I have been advised that I would not be able to bond with them properly, and that would adversely affect their emotional and magical development."

"And I do not feel comfortable with Harry fathering children with other women," Ginny said. "He's mine."

"Is he?" Adonis asked with an arched brow. "If that Veela had managed to make Harry invoke the wedding vow, he would not be. His own magic would force him to love her as his wife, and the insidious power of the Veela is that they can consciously adjust their magic to suit the magic of any male they bond with."

"But he didn't!" Ginny said.

Adonis leaned forward and stared at her intently. "Ginevra, listen and understand. The woman was using Polyjuice to wear your face. Understand what that means: he was being raped by a woman using your face and body. As difficult as it is for a woman to handle such a terrible violation, it is just as difficult for a man. Men are not mentally prepared to accept that they can even be violated in such a way. It is stereotypical, yes, but it is also the truth. He could no more have fought them than a muggle woman could fight a Wizard. He is furious, but he is also confused. He knows he should feel rage, but at the same time he's terrified that you will not want him anymore, that somehow he violated your trust. He is so terrified that you will reject him that he is rejecting you and everyone else first to prevent it from happening. All the counseling in the world will not help that—only you can. If he is yours, Ginny, then you had better stake your claim now, before you lose him forever."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The moment she emerged from the Floo at the Burrow, she knew something was wrong. She could feel it in the air—a tension so thick it made the hairs on the back of her arms stand on end. And then she heard and felt it—a loud _thump_ that made the whole house rattle dangerously. She ran to the back porch, where she found her parents, Ron and the twins all looking out at a huge plume of dust rising into the air.

She came into the middle of the conversation. "…see what he is doing? Did you feel it? There's no way I'm going out to talk to him." That was Ron, looking wide-eyed and pale.

Another thump shook the whole house, and on the porch she could hear it as well—a massive explosion followed by another plume of dust.

"Arthur?" Molly asked.

Ginny's father shook his head—the man looked emotionally and physically exhausted. "Molly, the only thing we can do is let him work it out of his system. He might hurt one of us by accident, and he'd never forgive himself. Whatever has him so angry, he needs to get over it on his own."

"We found out the Ministry isn't going to do anything about his kidnapping," Ginny said.

Her five other family members turned and stared at her, caught off guard by her presence. "Ginny, pumpkin, we couldn't risk an all-out war right now," Arthur said, and she realized immediately that her father had a hand in the decision.

"I know that, Daddy," she said, fighting to control her emotions. "Why didn't you tell me those Veela were using Polyjuice? You told me St. Mungo's cut my hair to make the treatment easier."

"Veela?" Ron asked.

"Polyjuice?" the twins said.

"Oh Merlin," Molly said, paling visibly and wringing her hands as she immediately began to understand. "They didn't…"

Ginny looked her father in the face. "They did. They tried to get him to make the marriage vow—just like Fleur did during the Triwizard Tournament. They were using my face, Daddy. And now he can't even stand to look at me…"

Molly, compelled by the horror of seeing her only daughter crying in anguish, rushed forward to embrace her, but Ginny spun away from the rush so adroitly Molly for a moment couldn't even see where she'd gone. Ginny jumped from the porch, using a banishing charm to propel herself into the air, and a cushioning charm to land in a dead run toward the plumes of smoke.

"Ginny!" Molly howled, starting after her.

"Molly, stop," Arthur barked in a voice of command he'd never used with her before. She pulled up, angry and incredulous that he would use that tone with her.

Arthur shook his head before stepping down to hug her. "I'm sorry, Molly, but we need to let her go. She's the only one who can fix this."

Ginny didn't not hear any of it. She ran toward yet another plume of dust, ignoring the ear-numbing explosion that caused it, and saw him standing there in the midst of a moonscape of craters. His face was a ragged mask of snot and tears; with a mask of dirt and dust covering it from his efforts.

She did not slow at all—instead she tackled him head-on, throwing both to the ground as she straddled him. "STOP IT!" she screamed.

He stared up at her with narrowed eyes, his lips compressed into a thin line. The air around them shimmered with his magic. It spiked angrily until it felt like her skin was on fire, but she did not let go of him. "Just stop it," she said again as tears ran down her nose. "I can't handle this anymore, Harry. I need you back!"

"They ruined me, Ginny," he choked out.

"No they didn't!" she said. She grabbed his filthy face in her hands and locked eyes with him. "You are mine, Harry! I don't give a damn what they did, or what you did, you are mine! Do you hear me? I want my Harry back!"

She felt his magic spiking again as pain and anguish washed through him. "You don't understand…" he said, a new river of tears streaking through the dust. "What they made me do…"

"Then make understand, baby," she said, crying anew. "Tell me what happened."

"You'll hate me." It came out as a choked whisper, and in that instant Ginny did not hear the nearly sixteen-year old boy who loved her; she heard a child, terrified and broken.

She reared back, still straddling him, and looked down as he turned his face away from her. Silently, she conjured a face cloth and water, and then leaned back over him as she gently rubbed away the dirt, dust, snot and tears. Gently, she pulled his face around to get the other side, until he was mostly clean. "Harry," she said, in a tone she remembered her mother using with her when she was a little girl, "you could murder the whole world, and I would still love you. There is nothing you could do, ever, to make me not love you. You're my whole world, Harry. You're my everything."

"I cheated on you," he said, choking on the word.

"Oh baby," she said, pulling him up and holding his head to her chest. "Oh Merlin, Harry, you didn't cheat on me. You didn't. It wasn't your fault."

"It was," he moaned, agonized, into her bosom. "I escaped—I broke their allure and burned the potion out of my body, and I could have stunned her. But I was so mad, I wanted to hurt her. I wanted to hurt her, Ginny! I…I fucked her like some kind of animal, and I did it because I wanted to hurt her."

This was not in any of the reports; this is not something she'd heard. She leaned back, still clasping his face, and said, "Tell me, Harry. Tell me everything."

And so he did, unable to hide it from her any longer. Shaking at the memory, he told her not just about the potion-induced rapes by a woman who looked and sounded just like Ginny, but also at the end, when he gave in to his own anger and shame. By the end, he was crying just as much as she was, and the two were sitting with their foreheads touching, her on his lap and her arms around his neck.

"I'm so sorry," he gasped, choking on his own tears now, she held him. "Oh God, I'm so sorry, Ginny."

She didn't say a word; instead she just pulled his head to her chest again, rocking gently and crooning just like her mother did for her when she was hurt as a child. Around them, she saw the deep craters he'd gouged in his rage, and felt a strange, oddly-timed knot of gratefulness that he hadn't taken his anger out on the trees in the apple orchard. They sold the apples every year in the village for extra money, and the ritual of picking and packing the apples was one of her fondest, most beloved memories.

And then something suddenly dawned on her, making her cheeks blush. She leaned back, cradling Harry's head still. His cheeks were blotched and reddened and his glasses were askew. "Harry," she said, "did you really fuck a Veela unconscious?" she finally said.

He stared, jaws agape. For a moment, sheer surprise overcame emotion. "That's all you have to say?"

"Harry, I…" She stopped and shook her head. "Love, you didn't ask to be there, and you most certainly didn't start that last bout. You said she came to you and started it. But Merlin's beard it sounds like you finished it."

Harry shook his head, confused and a little hurt. "Ginny, you don't understand…"

Her eyes narrowed as she looked at him, and then she leaned down and kissed him with all the passion two months of withdrawal could create. She let her own magic go, feeling it reach for and sooth the ragged ends of his own. "Show me," she finally said. "Show me what you did to her."

"Ginny! I don't want to hurt you! I don't ever want to do something like that in anger again."

She reached down and started fumbling for his belt. "Then don't, Harry. It's not anger I'm feeling right now. I want to make love to my man—it's been a damned long, painful two months, and you just told me you fucked a Veela into a coma. You are going to have sex with me, or I'm going to hex you into next week!"

"But what about your parents?"

"I don't care!" she screamed, before kissing him again. "Harry, I love you so much. I need you. You…are…_mine_!"

Looking into her eyes, he realized with a shock that he saw the same sense of possession for him that he felt for her when he burned away the confounding potion, the same anger that anyone would dare take him away from her. His hands shook when he started taking off her jumper and pulling down her trousers. They didn't even bother with a cushioning charm on the ground. His magic flared, and like in Bulgaria he pushed at it, pushed at her with it. Her cheeks flushed, as did her chest, as he penetrated.

"Oh my God," she gasped. "Oh God, Harry!"

It was not like their first time at all. Harry moved urgently underneath her, gripping her hips and pulling her down with all his strength, but there was no anger at all. With her magic meshing so perfectly with his, he could not even think about the Veela. All he could think about was how perfect his Ginny was for him; all she could think about was…well, not much, and she was okay with that.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Molly couldn't leave the porch. None of them could, really, but at least the boys made a pretense of doing something. Ron and Fred started a chess game while George watched. Arthur went back inside, probably to read or just relax.

Molly could not do that, though, not when two of her kids were out there hurting so badly. At least the explosions had stopped. It frightened her to think that Harry was so powerful he could do that. When she moved to the very edge of the porch, she could see them out beyond the orchard trees. She narrowed her eyes and saw Ginny on Harry's lap, holding his head to her chest.

She struggled to breathe, and wrung her hands. A part of her wanted to run out and sweep them both in big hugs, but she was hesitant to do that after Arthur asked her to stay. This was not to say that Arthur had any business bossing her around or using that tone with her, and she'd make sure he knew it! But she knew sometimes she was too motherly to her children—she knew why Bill and Charlie left so fast after finishing Hogwarts, and tried her best not to smother the other kids. It was so hard, though, and things were so frightening…_and oh Merlin was Ginny taking off her clothes_?

She stopped wringing her hands and stared, incredulous, as her fourteen, almost fifteen-year-old daughter started bouncing on Harry. "Arthur! ARTHUR!"

The boys ran to her side, alerted to her voice, and immediately saw what was happening. Molly desperately tried to cover Ron's eyes, which made the twins snort. Arthur came barreling out of the house with his shirt undone. "What is it?" he asked.

She raised one shaking hand, while trying to keep the other over Ron's eyes. Of course, Ron had moved her hand while she wasn't looking and looked himself. Arthur joined them, squinting before he cast a far-seeing spell.

"Oh my!" he said, flushing to his scalp.

"You have to stop them!" Molly screamed.

"Little late for that, mum," Fred said.

"Looks like they're about done anyway," George said.

"No, they started again," Ron said. "Wow, that training of theirs really paid off."

"Ron!" Molly screamed, horrified, while the twins laughed.

"Weasleys!" Arthur snapped. "Inside, now. Now, boys."

The three boys walked into the house, laughing and shaking their heads in astonishment at their sister's precociousness. "Arthur, we have to stop this!" Molly screamed. "Look what he's doing to our little girl!"

"Molly, our little girl was on top," Arthur pointed out, before coughing when he realized exactly what it was he just said. "Molly…this isn't their first time."

"WHAT?"

He winced, and then took a deep breath. "They as much as admitted they were intimate the night before Harry's cleansing ritual—you know, the one that led to him being dead for five minutes?"

Molly gasped, and then turned away, covering her face. "Arthur, she's too young! She can't be doing this! It's all that horrid Lovegood's fault."

"It likely is," Arthur said, "but it's too late now. We cannot change who or what they are. And think about this, Molly. An entire colony of Veela, using Polyjuice _and_ confounding potion, could not make Harry renounce his love for our daughter. And Ginny was able to complete the True Love's Kiss potion. After all that, can you even doubt that they love each other?"

She spun around, face red. "She's fourteen years old!"

"She'll be fifteen in two weeks, Molly. How old were you your first time?"

"That's different!"

Arthur struggled to control his anger—he couldn't believe he was defending his daughter having sex at fourteen. "How is it different, Molly? Other than the fact that you did not stay with the boy for long, whereas Ginny and Harry are bound for life?"

"You can't know that," Molly said, losing some of her volume and steam.

"I will stake my life on it," Arthur assured her. "Please, Molly, let me handle this. I know you mean well, but I need to handle this. Please."

"You owe me," Molly said, sniffing. "You owe me the nicest dinner in England."

"Love, I owe you everything good in my life," he said as he leaned over and kissed her. "As much as those two love each other, I love you even more. Just this once, let me handle things."

Unable to speak, she rushed inside. A moment later, Ron wandered out of the house. In the distance, Harry and Ginny were no longer moving. "All of Gryffindor knows," Ron said. "They know Harry and Ginny never came back to their dorms after their last test. Seamus started to make a joke about it, until Hermione hexed him and threatened the whole house."

Arthur took a deep, ragged sigh. "And Luna was with them."

Ron shrugged. "That I wasn't going to say anything about. But the three of them are always together."

In the distance, Harry and Ginny were laying down on the ground, unmoving.

"I hope, someday," Ron said softly, "that Hermione and I love each other half as much as those two do. I hope, anyway."

Arthur gripped his youngest son's shoulder. "You've grown up a great deal, Ron. You've become a good man. I'm proud of you."

Ron's cheeks flushed and he looked down. "Thanks, Dad."

"And I'm going to need you on my side, because your mother may end up killing us all." With that, Arthur started down the porch steps, walking toward the lovers in the distance.

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987, JR, Miles and Randalotoole for beta reading. As always, they make these chapters better than they could ever otherwise be.


	53. Anger Issues

A/N: Chapter 52 Review Responses are available in my forms. Links are deactivated, but the URL is in my profile. Thanks for reading!

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**Chapter Fifty-Three: Anger Issues**

Two teenagers lay spooning each other amidst a field of craters behind the orchard of the Burrow. They had dressed again, but lay so close they may as well have been naked. Harry's arm was wrapped protectively around her, and she held his hand between her breasts.

With their magic joined so perfectly, they felt the presence approaching from a distance away, but neither could summon the emotional or physical energy to rise, and so stayed put as Arthur Weasley picked his way across the broken ground until he very slowly, with a grunt, sat down a few feet from them. "Well," he began, "I do wish you two had at least conjured a wall. Your mum has very sharp eyes."

Ginny started to chuckle; it turned into a giggle, and then finally into a full-blown laugh. On shaking arms, she pushed herself up, crawled on her knees to her father, and then wrapped her arms around him as her laughter slowly morphed into an odd hybrid of relieved, happy-sad tears.

Harry also sat up, surprised at how his arms shook as well. Though Arthur was holding Ginny, he was looking at Harry with glistening eyes.

"Mr. Weasley," Harry said in a shockingly hoarse voice, "I don't ever want anything like what happened to me to happen again. I will only give my wedding vow to one person. Please, sir, may I have your daughter's hand in marriage?"

Ginny's tears turned into a moan, and faster than Arthur could follow she spun back to her man, wrapping her arms around his neck and climbing onto his lap. "Ginny?" Arthur said softly, "is that what you want?"

"Yes!" She reared her head back and screamed the word to the heavens. "Yes!"

Arthur smiled and wiped the back of his hand to clear his eyes. "I won't lie, Harry. Xeno told me a week ago that you marrying Ginny would be a solution to these kidnapping attempts, but with everything that has happened I couldn't even imagine trying to force something like that on you."

"No one is forcing anything," Harry said. "Ginny is mine. I'll be damned if anyone ever tries to take her away from me again."

"Or him away from me," Ginny added. "Please say yes, Daddy."

"On the eleventh of August you'll turn fifteen," Arthur said. "That's just two and a half weeks away. If you both feel this strongly, then I will consent to Ginny's marriage."

He was expecting Ginny's hug; he was not expecting the matching one from Harry. When they parted and stood, Arthur said, "Let me do the talking, okay?"

He led the couple back to the house, where Molly Weasley stood on the porch with her arms crossed and her lips pursed in a thin line. Ron sat nearby, having ostensibly returned to his chess game with Fred, with George ostensibly watching. However, each boy's eyes were on Harry and Ginny.

"Probably _should_ have raised a barrier or shade or something," Harry muttered. "Ron's going to kill me."

"Let 'them try." Ginny said, narrowing her eyes dangerously at her brothers.

All attempts at subterfuge ended when they reached the porch. "What do they have to say for themselves?" Molly demanded her cheeks red and her eyes glinting.

Arthur took a deep breath, as if about to engage in mortal combat. "Molly, Harry has asked for our daughter's hand in marriage. Ginny expressed her desire for this as well, and so I have consented. They are to be married on her birthday."

Harry and Ginny held hands and their breaths, waiting for an explosion that never came. "They're not of age," Molly said in a voice that reminded all around her of the eye of a storm.

Arthur shrugged. "She is of marriageable age on her birthday with parental consent, at least in the Wizarding world. More importantly, if we allow them to marry, no one will ever be able to do again to Harry what the French did this summer. A wedding vow with our daughter would protect him."

Molly wrung her hands. "Arthur, this isn't right," she finally said. "It isn't. She's just a girl."

"She's a girl who loves her boy," Arthur said. "And her boy loves our girl. I'm not saying it's right, Molly. But I believe it's necessary."

"Why can't we just settle for a betrothal?" Molly pleaded.

"Because betrothal agreements can be broken," Arthur said.

Her face was steadily getting more red as they spoke, hinting at an explosion to come. "We are going to discuss this further," she declared finally with a hint of steel in her voice, and a raging storm boiling just under the surface of her forced calm. "We will discuss this as a family. It is not just Ginny that will be affected by this. What will our friends and family think of us, allowing our daughter to marry before she is of age? They'll think she's… She isn't, is she?"

"No," Ginny barked. "And this is my life."

"You are our daughter!" Molly screamed, for one instant showing how on edge she was. She took a deep breath and wrung her hands more. "We will discuss it as a family. In the meantime, Ginny and Harry, please go to your rooms."

"You're sending us to our rooms?" Ginny said, staring incredulously. "You're punishing us like were seven? We are salaried Unspeakables with four field assignments under our belts!"

"You're fourteen years old!" Molly shouted back.

"Harry, Ginny," Arthur said, desperately trying to regain a semblance of control, "please think about the situation. Right now, we all need time to cool down. We're asking everyone to just go to a separate place to calm down so we can regain our tempers, and we'll discuss it later. Please."

"I can go to Grimmauld Place," Harry said softly.

"No!" three people cried at once. Molly, Arthur and Ginny all stared at him.

"No," Arthur said again, more calmly. "Harry, Molly wants to discuss this as a family, and you _are_ a part of this family. Arguments and disagreements are a part of any family."

"Trust us on that one, mate," Ron said fervently, causing his parents to glare at him.

"Please just give us some time to absorb everything," Arthur said.

"You said yes," Ginny said desperately.

"I did," Arthur said. "And I will not change my decision. But your mum also has a say, Ginny. She's right that we need to discuss this as a family. So, let's all just go to separate places and calm down. Please."

Ginny ground her jaw. "Fine," she snarled. "Come on, Harry."

She led the two into the house so quickly, by the time Molly shouted, "Separate rooms!" they were already out of sight. "Boys, go inside," she said. "See if you can get word to Charlie, Bill, and Percy."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

With the monitoring wards burned out beyond Arthur's ability to repair, there was no alarm when Harry and Ginny entered his room and closed the door. And with their standard suite of securing charms, once the door closed there was no one in the family that could have removed the protections to get through.

Except, of course, a professional curse breaker.

When the Floo call came that Saturday afternoon, Bill was in his flat in London, having tea with a beautiful girl he met at the bank. He almost fell out of his chair when Fred's face appeared in a rush of green flame. "Oi, Bill! You there?"

Smiling apologetically at his companion, Bill walked to the flame. "What is it, Fred?"

"Family meeting. Mum saw Harry and Ginny shaggin' away, then Harry asked to marry Ginny, Dad said yes, and Mum went on a tear. We're having a family meeting."

Bill sighed. Fred was probably the biggest gossip in the family, and his brother's face was positively overjoyed as such juicy titbits. "Fine," Bill said. "When?"

"Charlie won't get in till morning, so that's when. Can you make it?"

"Yeah, I'll be there."

Fred's face disappeared from the flame. Bill was about to stand when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up, astounded as always at how beautiful she was. From the moment he saw her two years ago at the Tournament, he had wanted to speak to her, and it astonished him that she just walked into the bank one day last summer, having come in heavily recruited with a contract better than Bill's, or anyone else's in the bank.

"What is it, Fleur?"

"You were wondering where I was in June, yes?" she asked softly.

"Yes?"

Fleur Delacour pulled his hand and led him back to the couch. "_Mon ami_, there are things you must know before you meet your family tomorrow. Not just about 'Arry and your sister, but about me. You see, before I came to England last summer, I worked for the French _Conseil_, in what you would call ze Department of Mysteries. You know that even though I am quarter Veela, _zat_ is a myth. One is either Veela or not, and I am. And my first mission was to abduct a fourteen-year-old boy, seduce him with my sex and allure, and beguile him into marrying me…"

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Harry and Ginny did not even realize at what point they fell asleep. After the sheer, emotional exhaustion of the day, they simply went to his room, layered it in their standard suite of securing charms, and just collapsed together in his bed. They skipped dinner, and no one came to wake them. Or, if they did, they couldn't break through the wards.

They did not have sex again, or even undress for that matter. They simply lay on Harry's bed, her next to him, his arm around her waist, and talked. Their conversations ranged from training and the war, to what it would be like to take classes together, since Ginny was able to pass her O.W.L.s and would be taking sixth year classes the following year.

It wasn't until much later that they talked about what it would be like to be married; about where they would live, and whether or not Luna would live with them. And in the midst of that conversation, they simply passed from being awake to being asleep.

They woke up the next morning to pulse of warning magic from their wards. Both jumped up, wands at the ready and blood surging with adrenaline, to find Bill Weasley in the open door of Harry's room, his own wand up and his eyes wide. The door itself was still swinging inward.

"What are you doing, Bill!" Ginny hissed.

"You warded yourself in a room with a boy," Bill coolly. "What in Merlin's name do you think I was doing, Ginevra? Mum's about ready to start throwing blasting curses at the door."

"That's none of your damned business!" Ginny said.

Harry, though, lowered his wand. "Ginny," he said softly, "Bill was right. We shouldn't have done that."

"Dad said we needed to separate and cool off," Ginny said, "and that's what we did."

"Separate means not together," Bill pointed out.

"Harry and I _are _together!" Ginny said. "And I'll hex anyone if they try to separate us again, even if they are family!

"You're acting like a spoiled little brat!" Bill said. "You're getting out of here right now!" And with that, Bill attempted to send a _Petrificus_ spell at Ginny.

For a brief moment, Harry considered interceding not to protect Ginny, but to save Bill the embarrassment of being completely trounced by his fourteen-year-old sister. Then, with a smirk, he decided it was too fun to watch.

Bill's eyes widened in surprise when Ginny swept his spell aside with a contemptuous swat of her wand; and then he cried out a shielding spell in alarm as she followed up with a powerful stunner. He stumbled back out of the room and stared incredulously at his cracked shield, while Ginny followed with an unbelievable barrage of minor hexes. Even in her anger, she was not attempting to kill.

Bill actually managed a decent show, deflecting or dodging with a fair amount of skill for someone not specifically trained for it. Harry knew Bill was not only in the75th percentile for magical power, which was quite decent, but he was also a professional curse breaker and quite a successful one.

Even so, he was no match for Ginny, and at the landing at the top of the stairs, while the rest of the family rushed up to find out what was happening, she broke Bill's strongest shield, leg-locked him, turned his hair green, his clothes orange, his bogeys into bats, and flipped him upside down for good measure. Levitating his garishly colorful, upside-down figure, she started down the stairs, while Harry followed chuckling a step behind.

"Ginevra Molly Weasley!" Molly screamed when they reached the ground floor, "you put your brother down this instant! What do you think you're doing?"

"He cast a curse at me," Ginny said with a toss of her hair. She released Bill, allowing him to tumble to the floor. She then stared in astonishment at the beautiful, silver-blonde figure that had come to his aid.

"_You!"_ she said with loathing. "You….you… cow!"

The Weasley family then had a first-hand demonstration of the height of magical fighting, begun with a blasting hex from Ginny that blew Fleur Delacour through the living room window. She ran full tilt after, diving head-first through the hole Fleur made and landing with a perfectly executed tuck and roll.

Harry followed a little more slowly. "Mr. Weasley," he said in a low voice, "did you ever tell Ginny that Fleur defected, or that she was the one who helped rescue me in June?"

Arthur pulled at his ear. "You know, Harry, I think I might have forgotten. Didn't your people tell her?"

Harry shrugged. "I think I was so out of it no one bothered to mention it in the reports, other than by codename."

By this time, Bill managed to undo most of Ginny's hexes. "Will someone stop them?" Bill said. "That's my girlfriend out there!"

"I'm not too worried," Harry said. "Believe me, I fought her my fourth year—she's really very good. Veela are faster than we are."

"You're taking this awfully casually," Arthur said. "And I am really disappointed in what you did last night."

Harry's shoulders sagged. "I'm sorry. We just needed time to talk. I promise that's all we did. I guess I should go stop them." Harry stared to the door, while with a nod to each other Arthur and Bill began to magically repair the hole in the wall.

Ron, the twins and Charlie Weasley were already outside, watching the performance with stunned faces. Charlie was the shortest of all the boys, with a sturdy build and burn-scarred arms. On the grounds in front of the orchard, Ginny and Fleur danced in an all-out fight. It was not a duel at all, since a duel implied rules.

"When did she get so good at transfiguration?" Charlie asked.

"She already sat her NEWTs," Ron said. "For Transfiguration, Charms and DADA."

The battle included conjured animals, transfigured weapons and cannon balls, and explosive hexes beyond what any of the Weasleys could have hoped to withstand. Fleur moved like a ballerina, while Ginny moved like a skilled athlete. While she lacked Fleur's grace, her movements were strong and decisive, and it seemed in a straight fight they were evenly matched in their skills and training.

Harry stepped down the porch, raised his wand, and then swept it in an arc in front of him. The air exploded before a curtain of red magic that shot at near the speed of light toward the two. Both saw the attack and raised shields. Fleur's cracked and she fell back; Ginny's held but she still stumbled back as well.

"Ginny, she's on our side," Harry called calmly with a hint of amusement when he had their attention. "She led Adonis into the Colony to rescue me."

"I know that, Harry!" Ginny snapped back. "You think I couldn't figure out a code name like _De Lis_ for a woman named _Fleur_?" She snorted derisively.

"_Zen_ why did you attack me?" Fleur demanded angrily, panting with the exertion of the fight.

Ginny shrugged. "Because I don't like you! You tried to seduce my Harry! You flashed your baps at him when he was only fourteen! And I'm angry at your boyfriend, but I didn't want to hurt him, and…Merlin's balls I just want to hex somebody!"

Risking life and limb, Harry walked across the scarred, charred ground to take her into a hug. "Ginny, I love you. But she saved me, and hell, you were the one who said I should have at least felt her up before refusing," Harry pointed out.

Ginny deflated and leaned into his arms. "Well, she is pretty. But I'm _bloody damn _tired of everyone telling us how to live our lives!"

Molly and Arthur Weasley stood among their sons, astounded at the display of magical combat that would have done credit to Albus Dumbledore. "Breakfast is ready," Molly said in a tone of normality that seemed totally inappropriate to the completely abnormal situation.

As they walked into the house, Charlie desperately tried to inject some humor into the situation. "You're shorter than I thought you would be," he said to Harry, followed by a playful, brotherly swing of his fist. He barely had time to shout in alarm when he found his hand caught in a vice-like grip a moment before his entire world went sideways and he found himself on his back on the floor, winded, with Harry's fist an inch away from his face.

"Harry, please don't beat up my big brother," Ginny said in a tone of voice that was much too calm, Charlie thought, for the situation. It reminded him of Harry's tone during Ginny's fight with Fleur—the tone implied absolute trust in each other's skills. "He's not the one who was a prat."

Harry blinked and then backed away with an expression of horror. "Sorry, Charlie. Reflex. Are you okay?"

"Nothing hurt but my pride," Charlie said with a cautious laugh. "You do that to all the people who play-punch you?"

"People don't play-punch Harry," Fred said as he sat at the table. "Most people run screaming from him," George added.

"They do not!" Harry said.

Ron shook his head. "Actually, Harry, do you remember that fourth-year Slytherin you ran into right before your last OWL test? When you turned the corner she screamed, dropped her books and ran away."

Harry ran a hand through his hair with a chagrined expression. "Yeah, sorry, tried to forget that." Unconsciously he held a chair for Ginny, before sitting himself.

The kitchen table was the heart of the Burrow. When they trudged inside and took their seats gingerly around the table, it seemed as if they were setting down to a conference. With all the boys there, including Percy, and Fleur and Harry, it made a total of eleven people.

Molly did not scrimp on the food, either. The table was piled with platters filled with sausages, bacon, eggs, fried bread and baked beans. The Weasley Matriarch did not look happy at all, but said, "Well, we can talk after we have finished eating."

"Mrs. Weasley," Harry said tentatively, "before we do, I just wanted to apologize about last night. I know we shouldn't have done that, given what happened. We just talked until we fell asleep."

"Thank you for your apology, _Harry_," Molly said, stressing his name while glaring at Ginny. "Let's eat, and we can talk later."

The silence during the meal was nearly painful, until Charlie once more tried to inject some humor. "So, Ms. Delacour, did you really show Harry your –"

"Shut up, Charlie," Bill snapped.

"Fine," Charlie said. He rubbed his shoulder. "So, Harry, I know a great mind healer in Romania who could probably help with these anger issues of yours. She's great looking, too. Tall, blonde, blue-eyed. Likes dragons and other large magical creatures, and Ogden's mixed with muggle soda. One time…"

"Charlie," Bill said, "Merlin's beard, will you please just shut up?"

A few minutes passed while Fleur picked absently at a piece of toast; Harry remembered from the tournament that she was not enamoured with traditional English fare. "You are quite good, Mademoiselle Weasley," she finally said, nodding to Ginny.

Ginny blushed, and grudgingly said, "You're not too bad either. That back-flip thing—I've never seen anyone do anything like that."

"Veela have very strong back muscles to make up for our lighter bones," she said. "It makes us faster and stronger than normal humans."

"Wow, makes me want to be a Veela!" Charlie said.

"Unfortunately," Fleur said, glancing at Harry before blushing, "there are aspects of our ancestry that are not as good."

Harry studied his plate closely. Finally, the awkward meal came to an end, and after Molly spelled their plates to the sink to begin the wash, she herded everyone into the living room to begin what Harry fully anticipated would be quite a difficult discussion.

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987, JR, Miles for beta reading. As always, they make these chapters better than they could ever otherwise be.


	54. The Family Talk

A/N: Chap 53 Review Responses are available in my forums. Only six more chapters to go!

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**Chapter Fifty-Four: The Family Talk**

It turned out that even though Fleur was working for the Goblins, she had signed and made so many binding oaths upon her defection that there was no danger of her blurting confidential information.

For Bill and Charlie, and to a lesser extent Percy and the twins, Arthur invoked the family honor, which to the family was as binding as any magical oath. When it was all done, it was Charlie who said, "Fine, all that's out of the way, there's one thing about all this I don't get. Why Harry and Ginny? I mean, yeah, obviously they can fight. But why would anyone want to kidnap him, or train them up to fight like that in the first place?"

"You do not know?" Fleur said, blinking in surprise.

"Know what?" Bill said.

"That 'Arry here is the most powerful wizard in ze world?"

Every set of eyes in the room turned to Harry, who flushed.

Arthur cleared his throat, and said, "Charlie, many of us do know, but I realize this is new to you and Bill. Weasleys, Harry and Ginny are special in many ways that, until recently, we could not even discuss. I myself did not even know until last summer, when circumstance forced Harry to live with us. However, their circumstances have changed, and their lives are no longer held to such secrecy. For instance, most of England knows that, in one capacity or another, Harry and Ginny have worked directly for the Ministry. The truth is, both are fully accredited Unspeakables with the Department of Mysteries. They each hold three NEWTs, and achieved Os in all the NEWTs they took."

"The school is going to let me advance to be with Harry," Ginny said. She didn't mention Luna.

Fleur was the only one not surprised. "I also sat my NEWTS early. It is standard for young agents."

"Agents?" Charlie asked.

"Agents," Arthur confirmed. "Unspeakables. They were recruited during their second year because, as Fleur indicated, Harry had the potential to be the most powerful wizard in the world. And he was paired with Ginny because she is one of the, if not the most powerful witch currently living in Britain."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

They talked for the better part of an hour. For Harry, it was a remarkable experience, this dynamic called family. With Ginny by his side, holding his hand, and next to them Ron lending silent support, Harry felt for the first time in his life as if he belonged. The only one missing was Hermione, who was still in Australia with her parents.

He was able to talk about his life with the Dursleys from a distant, dispassionate point of view, knowing that part of his life was over. He talked about that first, thrilling meeting with Ginny on the train and about finding out why his life was the way it was. Most important, though, was the realization that those around him were accepting him without judgment or hostility.

There was consternation over their relationship with Luna, but only because of her almost killing Percy. "I mean, we joke about doing that all the time, but we never would," Charlie said.

Percy snorted. "Don't worry, Charlie, it was mutual, I assure you."

"Well, what started this current situation was that in early June, during the worst of the attacks on Muggleborns, Harry and Ginny were given an assignment to protect a family that came under attack." Arthur looked at his hands as he spoke. "They managed to kill most of the attackers, but it turns out one was not actually a Death Eater, but a mole for the French ministry. He cut Ginny's hair and kidnapped Harry."

"Why?" Charlie asked.

Bill, having learned the truth, found himself staring at the young man with pity and respect. "Sports are like gold, Charlie," he said. "Old Zumandi in Brazil was kidnapped twice, and there were two other attempts on top of that. I met him during my first assignment. He was like a big, brown-skinned Dumbledore, only without the humour. Or the beard ... Or a personality ... Man was actually a prat."

"But why cut Ginny's hair?" Charlie asked.

"They…" Ginny started to speak, but couldn't say it aloud.

Arthur finished for her. "Charlie, he was being held in a Veela colony. They were attempting to confound him into pronouncing a marriage vow with a French Veela using Polyjuice. If they succeeded, his own magic would have forced him to stay with her, and the French would have effectively stolen him from us with his own magic."

"That is what I was assigned to do, during zee Triwizard Tournament," Fleur said. Her accent had seeped in again, and Harry suspected speaking without an accent was something she had to concentrate on. "I failed, and zee _Conseil_ decided to erase all evidence of the attempt. 'Owever, _Zey_ trained me too well, and I escaped."

"The last two months have been difficult for all of us," Arthur said. "Harry has gone through many traumatic experiences that nobody should have to experience, much less a teenager. Yesterday, he and Ginny…worked through some the difficulties, and at the end of it asked that they be allowed to marry. I have already given my consent, but Molly wished to have a family meeting, and I feel strongly she had every right to ask."

"I do not approve of this at all," Molly said. "Ginny, I love you so much, but you are too young to be married!"

"But Madame Weasley!" Fleur said, "if zey are allowed to marry, no other nation can use that means to kidnap him!"

"The Ministry is aware of that," Arthur said with a tight smile. "Needless to say they support the marriage, but this is a family matter."

"I say they might as well already be married," Ron said. The rest turned and looked at him, but he did not back down. "You should see them at school. They're like Mum and Dad already—they know what each other will say. They like the same things, they never fight, and the only time they're really happy is when they're around each other. And when they're not around each other, they're miserable. Mum, I know you mean well, but all you're doing is making them unhappy. Do you think for a moment Ginny wouldn't just run off to the Department of Mysteries to get emancipated so she could marry without consent?"

"And Amelia would grant it," Arthur said with a shake of his head. "She would, in a heartbeat, because the Department of Mysteries would do anything to keep a foreign power from kidnapping Harry."

"Mum, everyone," Ginny said, speaking for the first time since the meeting began, "I love all of you. Well, except for you, Fleur. I despise you."

"_Oui, c'est mutual," _Fleur said with a smile that bared her rather sharp canines.

"But I _am_ going to marry Harry. I already know from my own contacts that the Ministry would grant emancipation, because in two weeks I will be fifteen, and have sat my OWLs and three NEWTs. That more than meets the primary requirements for any witch or wizard to be declared an adult. Harry owns a home already, and our combined income just as Unspeakables is almost as much as Dad's and he's the Senior Undersecretary. We have the means, we have a home, and…."

She stopped, took a deep ragged breath, and looked at Harry. Harry was looking at Molly. "Mrs. Weasley, you're the closest thing to a Mum I've ever had. I'll never forget all you've done for me. But they tried…to…take…me…away…from…her!" The sudden rage in his voice and, more immediately, his magic made every in the room sit up. "They tried to take me away from her," he said more calmly. "And her away from me. I just…I can't ever let that happen again. I can't. Ginny and I marrying would be the only sure way to keep that from happening. I love and respect you, but I love her more."

"Ginny's always known her own mind," Fred said.

"And Ron's right," George added. "They already act like an old married couple."

"I'm not afraid to hex you, George," Ginny said.

"I'm Fred!"

"We can feel your magic, George," Harry said blandly. "We know it's you."

George pouted.

"Well, given Harry kicked my ass, I'm not even going to try the big brother approach," Charlie said. "And seeing as Ginny kicked yours, _William_…" He snickered. "You shouldn't either."

"It is highly inappropriate," Percy said stiffly. "Mother, I agree with you. Ginny, you're simply too young to marry."

"I'm definitely not afraid to hex you, Percy," Ginny said. Percy paled and leaned away from her.

Molly was not flushed—she was as pale as a sheet. She looked to Arthur desperately, and without a word he stood, held a hand to her, and the two disappeared into the pantry.

"So you have a house?" Charlie asked.

"I inherited it from my Godfather before he died last summer," Harry said neutrally. It no longer hurt so much to speak of Sirius, but it wasn't pleasant either. "And even if I didn't, I have enough gold in my vault to buy another outright."

A few minutes of tense silence later, Molly walked out with Arthur a step behind. The family matriarch stopped in front of Harry and Ginny and stood wringing her hands. "I have conditions," she said loudly. "No children, not until you are at least eighteen."

"We're both on a potion," Ginny said. "We'll stay on a potion until we're ready, and I can't imagine that being until after I'm 18."

Molly nodded, glanced briefly at Arthur, and continued. "You'll continue school. Harry, Ginny's tuition would be your responsibility."

"Actually it would be paid by the Department of Mysteries," Harry said. "Plus any additional schooling we take. Ginny and I will most likely continue to a Sixth Form college to sit Muggle exams before taking muggle University Courses as part of our continuing training. Don't worry, Mrs. Weasley, I couldn't finish without Ginny. Even though she was a year behind, she's been helping me with my course work since we were paired together."

"Which is why I was able to sit my OWLS with him," Ginny pointed out.

Molly nodded. "Very well. Finally…finally…you'll not forget this is your home." She broke down, crying uncontrollable. Ginny rose to her feet, and the two women hugged tightly. Harry watched, his eyes glistening, and noticed most of the Weasley men were just as impacted by the sight of Molly's tears.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Harry's birthday was virtually lost in the rush of Molly's frantic planning. She did make him a spectacular tart and a dinner that sent most of the family into a food-laden stupor, but then it was back to planning.

For his part, Harry didn't understand why it was so important to pick out one specific shade of parchment from the seemingly endless selection for their invitations, or to figure out the guest list. He thought, or hoped, that it would just be him, Ginny, and the Weasleys.

"Harry, son," George said when Harry voiced his opinions.

"You just have no idea," Fred added.

"Women live for weddings," George continued. "Sometimes, we think Mum had Ginny just so she could plan a wedding someday. Best thing you can do is be somewhere else."

"When that doesn't work," Fred said, "just say yes. Never, ever say no. Never tell them you don't like something. Just say, 'Yes, Dear' and you may survive."

"But this is supposed to be about me and Ginny," Harry complained.

The twins laughed at him, until Fred said, "Harry, m'boy, weddings are for the bride, and everybody else. You never figured into it, other than to stand there and say 'I do'."

Two weekends before Ginny's party, Arthur pulled Harry out of his chess game with Ron and took him for a walk around the park. "So, have you thought any more about what you might need to do to get Grimmauld Place liveable again?"

"I thought about it, but I'm not sure. Do you think we could go visit it again, just to make sure it's liveable?"

"I think that's a good idea, Harry," Arthur said.

That afternoon, while Molly and Ginny discussed floral designs and dresses, Harry, Arthur, Ron and the twins took the Floo to Grimmauld Place. Just as when they had gone there and found Kreacher dead, the house was dusty and sadly quiet. Sheets covered most of the furniture, but even so it was obvious that this was not the same house Harry first saw.

The claustrophobic walls had long ago been ripped out, opening the ground floor up into a spacious and comfortable living area. Much of the wood panelling was removed from the upper half of the walls, replaced with plaster and painted soothing, light earth colours. Harry himself had picked most of the colours with Sirius.

The home had three levels and an attic, with a total of six bedrooms, a library, an office, a barren garden at the back, and a nice sitting room on the second floor attached to the master bedroom. It also had a luxury of a washroom on each floor, with a separate bathroom for the master suite that Sirius added when Harry was away at Hogwarts his Fourth Year.

"Blimey, Harry," Ron said, "this place is bigger than the Burrow!"

"Lot of space for just you two," Fred noted.

"We'll make do," Harry said, grinning as he envisioned sharing this home with Ginny. And, he admitted only to himself, probably with Luna as well.

They began dusting, using magic since the old, Black family wards were still enough to prevent Ron's underage magic from being traced. They removed the sheets from the modern Muggle-style furniture Sirius had purchased, and Arthur began making a list of what they would need to fully stock Harry's kitchen.

The twins also proved to be effective list-makers, noting things that Sirius neglected. For instance, despite the four bathrooms, they found only two sets of towels in the whole house, and no soap, shampoo or normal toiletries. Despite having six bedrooms, only Harry's old room and Sirius's master suite were furnished, and Harry, having a very good idea what Sirius was up to on that bed while he was away, had no desire to sleep in it. Given Sirius went through almost a woman a night during their one summer holiday together, he had no doubt quite a few women passed through that room during Sirius's full year of freedom.

With a look at his friends, Harry finally said, "Dobby!"

The flighty elf appeared a second later with a pop, and a minute later was a bound employee of Harry Potter.

At the end of the day, after cleaning, dusting and taking a thorough inventory, the four Weasley males and Harry returned to the Burrow to find Molly, Ginny, Luna and to Harry's happy surprise, Hermione Granger.

"Harry!" she squealed, before rushing to hug him almost the moment he stepped from the green fire. "I can't believe you two are getting married! I'm so happy for you!"

"Thanks, Hermione!" Harry said.

She beamed at him, until she saw Ron emerge from the flame. With another squeal, she rushed and gave him a crushing hug, followed by a long kiss. Behind her, Molly stared slack-jawed.

"You knew they were dating," Ginny said.

"I know, but it's just so hard to believe now that I see it," Molly said, growing misty eyed again. "My babies are growing up."

Suddenly Fred and George appeared on either side of her with the pops of apparition, each kissing her cheeks. "Don't worry, Mum!" Fred said.

"We'll never grow up!" George declared.

They disappeared again; Molly had a hand to her chest, breathing hard from the fright. "Those boys will be the death of me!"

Dinner that night was comprised of sandwiches and crisps, while they went over the lists of everything they would need for the wedding, and everything they would need for Grimmauld Place. Harry found himself chewing on crisps while watching Ginny and Hermione talking over decorating ideas for Grimmauld Place, and the flower selections for the wedding. Molly had given up any hope of sitting and now stood behind Ginny and Hermione, occasionally leaning over them to point at something on the list, or to add something.

The room was filled with voices and the smells of bread and cheese, crisps and butterbeer. Fred and George were talking about a property they were going to let, with an option to buy outright, while Ron was talking to his father about what he'd have to wear at the ceremony.

Suddenly, all conversations came to an abrupt halt. "Harry, dear, what's wrong?" Molly asked.

Harry blinked in surprise, caught completely off guard, and it suddenly dawned on him that he had been crying. He reached up and wiped his cheeks, stunned. "Sorry," he said.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked.

Ginny, though, was smiling at Harry so brightly her own eyes were watering. It was to her that he looked, and said, "This is what family's like isn't it?"

"Yes it is," Ginny said. "And yes, you are a part of it."

Arthur, who was closest, placed a hand on Harry's shoulder, but didn't speak. He didn't have to—the gesture was enough. Ginny sniffed a little, wiped her nose, and then said, "I like that second dress, mum. The one Madam Malkin showed us."

"It is a lovely dress," Molly confirmed. Gradually the talking picked back up. Harry kept his still shaky emotions in check, and simply sat and watched with a happy, content smile.

This was family—his family.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Madam Malkin bustled happily about the living room in a flurry of snake-like measuring tapes, mannequins charmed to exactly mimic Ginny, Hermione, Harry and Ron, and reams of fabric. They decided that only Hermione and Ron would stand with them, and explained their reasoning to Luna to make sure she understood it was not a rejection.

The kids themselves were outside in the tent where the actual ceremony would take place in a week. It was a warm, muggy summer day, having rained that morning.

Although she was not there personally for the rehearsal, Arthur assured them that Amelia Bones had promised to officiate at the ceremony given the debt she felt she owed Harry and Ginny, which in turn meant that Susan would be there. They walked through the ceremony several times, rehearsing the traditional marriage oaths, until Madam Malkin called them in to try on their robes.

By tradition, Harry was not allowed to see Ginny or Hermione, but he could hear their pleased exclamations from across the house. For several hours, they were able to forget about the war and their part in it, until shortly before dinner, when Algernon Croaker arrived.

Arthur met the man at the family ward-line. "Algie," he said with a nod. "Are you here to speak to Harry or Ginny?"

"Yes. How are you?"

"Nervous," Arthur admitted. "And a little angry, to be honest."

Algie shrugged. "I don't blame you in the least. Much about Mr. Potter's life is anger-inducing. So I do not begrudge him this one event."

Arthur did not know what to say to that, and so walked the rest of the way in silence, until they arrived at the tent where the whole family was out decorating, even Harry and Ginny, who had changed into casual clothing. "Weasleys, a moment," Arthur said quickly, catching everyone's attention. "If you don't know, this is Algernon Croaker, Deputy Head of the Department of Mysteries. He'd like a word."

"Thank you, Arthur," Algernon said. "First, congratulations, Harry and Ginny. We're very, very pleased with you both and wish you the best. Now, to be brief since I know you are all busy. With the Minister's decision to officiate the ceremony, security concerns have been mounting for the ceremony. The Burrow has already been placed under the _Fidelius _charm, but we would ask that all guests be routed through a security checkpoint in the Ministry first. Additionally, we would like to make sure that all family members have an emergency portkey on their persons at all times. I've brought them with me—a series of rings and bracelets I'd like you to pick from. Finally, Mr. Potter, the Ministry and the Department feel very strongly that we should place your future home under the _Fidelius_ now."

"I agree," Harry said.

"Good, because I'm going to teach you the charm."

Bill sputtered. "That's a Tenth Year Mastery charm," he pointed out.

Croaker smiled. "Yes, it is." He removed a small box and handed it to Bill. "Mr. Weasley, if you will pick your portkey. Mr. Potter, Miss Weasley, we'll need to go to Grimmauld Place. Better to get it done sooner rather than later."

"Mr. Croaker?" Hermione asked. "Would you mind terribly if I came along as well? I've always wondered about the _Fidelius_."

"And everything else," Ron said with a fond smile.

"Shush, you," Hermione said, but without heat.

"Very well," Croaker said. "Arthur, if we could avail ourselves of your Floo?"

The four of them returned to Grimmauld Place—Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Croaker. They soon learned, though, why so few people could perform the _Fidelius_ charm. It was the highest, most powerful expression of mind magic in existence. It was related to the _Obliviate_ charm in the same way a grenade was related to a two thousand pound bomb—both were based on a similar reaction and the perceptions and memories of the human mind. However, the scale was vastly different, and it was that scale which made the charm so very hard to perform.

Nor was the magic a single charm, but was instead an incredibly complex ritual involving an hour of memorized chanting. What surprised Hermione and Ginny, though, was how fast Harry was able to memorize it. Hermione, for her part, theorized his quick memorization came from the fact that Croaker did not give him a book to read, but instead had him repeat the incantation over and over, from the beginning, every time he made even the slightest error of pronunciation. While they repeatedly worked on the incantation, they walked around the edge of the property ward-lines, placing magical markers every five feet or so.

By late that night, Harry had managed to memorize the entire incantation, and the property was marked. When ready, Algernon gave Harry a nod and the young man began chanting. Around him, the air shimmered as his magic began responding to the words. He closed his eyes while he incanted the complex charm, until the very end when he looked at Ginny, pointed his wand, and finished the spell with a shouted, "_Fidelius_!"

The result was immediate and astounding; the whole of Grimmauld Place disappeared.

"Excellent!" Algie Croaker said. "Most excellent, Mr. Potter! Miss Weasley, would you mind ever so much informing us of where you and your betrothed will soon live?"

Ginny told them all the address and like magic the home appeared from amidst the other brownstones. They began walking back into the house to return to the Burrow, and as they did so, Hermione said, "Mr. Croaker, thank you for showing us this, but couldn't you have had this done yourself hours ago?"

"Perhaps," Algernon said. "Perhaps not. An aspect they don't discuss with the Fidelius Charm, Miss Granger, is that it is magically exhausting. It took two Unspeakables to cast it for the Burrow. Frankly I'm not able to cast it any more, though I was able to at one time. Dumbledore was able to cast them with little effort, and though it was taxing to his mind, Harry's magic barely felt the pull. And I have no doubt in a few years you'll be able to cast it yourself, as you are quite the witch. Miss Weasley could most likely have cast it as well, but the wards recognized only Harry as the owner since they have not married yet."

"Are Harry and Ginny really that good?" Hermione asked.

She was speaking about more than just the Fidelius, and both of them knew it. Algernon smiled wistfully, and said, "Let me put it to you this way, young lady. If I'd had Harry and Ginny with me instead of Albus, World War II would never have started, because Grindelwald would not have survived his meddling from World War I."

* * *

sp

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987, JR, Miles for beta reading. As always, they make these chapters better than they could ever otherwise be.


	55. Wedding Bells

A/N: Word of warning-those who hate the H/G/Luna grouping should skip the scene following the second scene break. Nothing is beyond an R-rating, but some reviewers have expressed distaste, and so this warning is my gift to you.

Chap 54 review responses are in my forums, and only five chapters to go.

* * *

**Chapter Fifty-Five: Wedding Bells**

Guests started arriving at ten, but not to where they expected to. The hastily created invitations were Ministry-sanctioned portkeys that brought the guests not to the Burrow, but to a secure room in the DMLE. Hit Wizards thanked them for coming, forced them to go through security screenings, and then ushered them into another room to wait for Bill Weasley and his Auror escort to Floo them to the Burrow.

It was not a large invitation list—Harry's classmates and the Gryffindor Quidditch team were there, of course, as were Ginny's old roommates. Also present were Tonks, her parents, Remus, Luna and Xenophilius.

Professor McGonagall attended, as did a wizard who looked exactly like Albus Dumbledore shortly before his death. McGonagall's lips twitched every time she saw the man, but she continued the ruse of pretending the ancient wizard still lived. Professor Flitwick was also invited, as was Pomona Sprout.

When the security screenings were done, Bill stepped into the room to tell them the address of the Burrow, and they finally began Flooing to the house. Susan Bones was already there with her Aunt, as were a handful of other Ministry Officials that Arthur felt obliged to invite.

Harry mingled, but did so mostly in a daze. He smiled where he was supposed to smile and nodded to convince everyone he was happy to be talking to them, but he wasn't really. He found himself constantly glancing back at the house, waiting for Ginny.

He didn't even realize he was standing next to Raphaella Richardson until she patted his hand and he felt her wandless cheering charm. He blinked up at her smiling face. "Hello, Harry. How are you?"

"Er, good, I suppose."

"Nervous?"

"Not really nervous. Just ready to get on with it."

"I understand. I'm actually here on business, believe it or not."

"Oh?"

She looked at him sombrely for a longest time. "You've not slept."

"No, guess not."

Richardson nodded. "I was told what happened, a few weeks ago. Physical love is a wonderful, amazing thing. But as we discussed, it can be perverted into something terrible as well. You know never to let anger enter your physical relations with Ginny, I hope."

Harry nodded fervently. The idea alone sickened him.

"How about Luna? How has that played out?"

It felt odd to discuss his relationship with Luna on the day he was to wed Ginny, but then again everything about Luna was odd. "That's going good, actually. Last term we had her tutoring, and using…well, us as the reward system. The kids she tutors have all shown better marks, and I've even had Professor Flitwick say the difference was astounding. I can't say she's making friends, but she seems to be socializing a lot better."

"And have you two had intercourse with her?"

Harry looked around, only to realize she had quietly cast a _Muffliato_ spell. "Well, nothing quite that far. She wants it, but…well, Ginny and I decided to wait on that with her until after we were married, and she knows that. She'll pretty much do anything we ask her to do."

"And Ginny?"

Harry couldn't help a goofy smile. "Ginny's the one thing I never have to worry about. She's perfect."

Richardson beamed. "I'm glad to hear that, Harry, and though you are both very young, I truly do believe this marriage will help you become the adults you were meant to be. If any of you ever wish to talk, please don't hesitate to contact me. After all, my services are paid for by the Ministry."

"Good to know," Harry laughed.

Suddenly Molly was there, motioning for Harry to go to the head of the tent. "Good luck," Raphaella said with a wink.

Harry nodded and then walked to the front of the room where Ron waited. The youngest Weasley male and Harry's oldest friend looked unusually sharp in black dress robes replete with a black tie. The robes matched Harry's, save his tie was a green to match his eyes.

Amelia Bones, resplendent in her Wizengamot robes, smiled at the young groom. "Harry, how are you?"

"I'm ready to get through this. I just wish my parents, or Sirius, were here to see it."

A touch of profound grief passed across Amelia's face. "I know. I wish more than anything they could be here now. But Harry, as much as we have lost, you have also gained a great deal. This is your day; it is Ginevra's day; it is a day of joy and life. Remember that."

"I will, Minister. Thank you," Harry said.

He turned to see Ginny coming and all speech—all thought—came crashing to a halt. Her dress was the purest white, slim and shapely with a train that stretched out a few feet behind her. She wore the traditional veil over a delicious, intricate pile of curls that made her hair look like a work of art. The dress made her look ephemeral and magical, like a creature of heaven rather than the staid and mundane existence of those on Earth.

He saw Hermione behind her, and knew on some level that she looked even more stunning than she did at the Yule Ball last year, but his eyes could not divert from Ginny. "Merlin," he breathed.

"Yeah," Ron said. Of course, Ron was looking at Hermione.

Harry and Ginny stared at each through the whole ceremony, never breaking eye-contact until finally, Amelia announced them as man and wife, and the two kissed. For one second, the whole world fell away into nothingness as they lost themselves to their first kiss as man and wife. When at last they broke, Harry breathed, "On my magic, I swear I'll love you for the rest of my life."

"I know," Ginny smiled, wiping away a tear. "And I'll love you right back every step of the way. You're stuck with me now, Potter."

"Thank Merlin for that," Harry said.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Harry woke up spooning his wife in the master bedroom of Grimmauld Place, their new home. Dobby had done an excellent job, and the heavily remodelled home looked nothing like the shabby place Harry and Sirius first moved into after Sirius gained his freedom.

Ginny writhed against him, and then pushed her bum against him further. "Wake me up, Harry," she breathed with a sleepy smile.

He kissed her neck, reached down, and with only a little fumbling slipped into her from behind. Her moan excited him more than anything else could, but they did not have the frenzied, still slightly clumsy coupling from last night. They made love slowly, luxuriating in the feel of the other and the brilliant, beautiful knowledge that they were bound together for life.

Eventually, though, her writhing and moans grew too much, and both finished in a flurry of need that left them breathing fast. "And to think we can do that as much as we want, for the rest of our lives," Ginny exulted.

"Brilliant," Harry said. He reached up and caressed her breasts. "And to think these are mine."

"And hopefully they'll get bigger!" Ginny said, grinning. She sat up and turned to face him, cupping her breasts. "They're not as big as Hermione's."

"They're bigger than Luna's, though."

"True," Ginny said. "But Luna's a stick. Not much curves on her."

"She's only fifteen."

"I remember her mum, Harry. She was a stick too."

"Oh. Did you see Healer Richardson at the ceremony?"

"No, I only saw you. And that horrid dress Demelza was wearing. A guest wearing white at a wedding? Really? She had a crush on you—probably her way of protesting."

Harry leaned forward and pointedly kissed first one, and then the other of her perfectly sized breasts. When they responded, the kiss turned into a suckle. He felt Ginny's arm on his neck, blessing his actions with a moan. Finally, he sat up and grinned. "I like your boobies."

Ginny giggled. "I like you liking my boobies," she confirmed. "Oh Merlin, Harry, I love you so much."

"Me too."

"But I'm sorry. How many times…?"

"Four, I think. And again this morning. I admit I'm pretty fagged out too."

They showered together, taking their time just to enjoy the other, before they finally made their way down stairs to an enormous breakfast Dobby prepared for them. "Dobby," Harry said.

The little elf appeared instantly as Harry and Ginny sat. "Will you sit with us, Dobby?" Harry asked.

"It is not appropriate for Dobby to be eating with master."

"But it is appropriate for my friend to join us," Harry said. "You did such a great job on breakfast. We'd like to share it with you."

Dobby very hesitantly climbed only a chair opposite the young couple, smiling and a little teary-eyed. The teens ate a lot more than normal, and enjoyed every bite of it. They were just finishing when their fireplace flared and Molly's face appeared. "Harry, Ginny?"

The two walked into the living room. "We're here!"

"Oh, good," the fiery face said in obvious relief. "We have all your gifts here. They've been screened by Minister Bones's people. May I bring them through?'

"Of course," Ginny said. "Thank you."

The two had just stepped aside when the fire billowed out in a green flame and a storm of brightly coloured boxes flew out of the hearth to neatly stay themselves across the room. A moment later Molly emerged and dusted herself off. She stopped to look at the two closely, before smiling gently.

"Oh my little girl," she said. "You look so…oh Merlin, you look happy. Both of you."

"We are," Ginny said.

She gave both of them crushing hugs, before stepping back. "Did you eat?"

"Dobby prepared a brilliant breakfast," Harry said. "Not quite as good as yours, but better than anything at Hogwarts."

"That's good," Molly said quickly. "I don't mean to intrude long."

"You're always welcome here, Mrs. Weasley," Harry said.

"None of that now! You're my son now, Harry. Maybe by marriage, but a son just as well. Call me Mum or Molly."

"All right…Mum." It obviously took effort, but that effort made Molly all the happier for it. She hugged them both before returning home.

The next day, Hermione and Ron arrived, and the four of them took their lists of essentials and went shopping. It was a brilliant day, and for that glorious stretch of summer sun Harry and Ginny were able to forget a war was being waged.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

A week before the end of the hols, Luna came over. She arrived late, well after nine, and carried her school trunk and belongings as she came through the floor. Harry and Ginny, having invited her, waited for her in the living room hand-in-hand.

Luna looked as if she were not sleeping well, with dark rings around her eyes. They both knew she was still on a potion regimen, but she had only added a few pounds to her lithe frame since her injuries last year. Still, they welcomed her with hugs and led her into the kitchen where they had a late supper ready.

They ate lightly, having had a large tea that afternoon, but watched with amusement as Luna ate far more than normal. When the food was finished and Dobby cleared the table, Luna sighed in contentment. "It is good to be with you again," she said. "It is ever such a bother sleeping without you near."

Which of course was what prompted the invitation—the knowledge, gained through Zeus—that Luna was regressing a little in her separation from Harry and Ginny. Now, though, she seemed to be recovering a little vitality just from being around them.

"Well you're here now, and you'll stay with us for the remainder of the summer," Ginny said.

"How wonderful," Luna said. "Now that you are married, do you think you might let Harry have sex with me? I must confess I have been thinking about it quite often. Father allowed me to not use the libido potion during the holidays."

Ginny blushed a brilliant shade of red, but still managed a smile. "Well, I am a bit sore, still."

Luna's eyes took on nearly amphibian proportions. "Really?" she breathed.

"Just, please be gentle with me," Harry begged.

In the end, though, it felt almost…anticlimactic. After everything they had already done, there was really not that huge of a leap for Harry to make love to her. Ginny stayed there, kissing Harry the whole time as they coupled.

Luna, for her part, had a most enjoyable time. She climaxed the first time as Harry dragged her panties off. She climaxed again when he kissed the inside of her thighs, and again when his lips brushed against her nether regions. In fact, her climaxes came so hard and fast she almost passed out before he even penetrated her, and in fact by the time they finished, she did just that.

Ginny, upon seeing that Luna was well and truly unconscious, laughed. "Harry?"

"Yes, love?"

"I think you broke her."

Harry, though, didn't laugh. "She was already broken."

Ginny's own smile faded a little. "Yeah. Maybe we can fix her—just a little. Or at least make her as happy as she can be."

"I hope so."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

On the last day of their summer holiday, Xenophilius, Adonis, the newly promoted DMLE head Kingsley Shacklebolt and Arthur Weasley arrived at Grimmauld Place. They found the three teenagers still sweating from their training in a dedicated duelling room in the cellar of the house.

"Sorry for not being cleaner," Harry said by way of greeting.

"We didn't exactly give you a lot of time," Arthur said. "How are you?"

"Good," Ginny said, and her happy smile proved the validity of her statement. "Things have been going good so far. It's not much of a honeymoon, but it's the best we can do."

"We have news," Xenophilius said, without a hint of a smile. However, there was an odd twinkle to his eyes. "And a plan. Let's find someplace to sit and talk."

A few minutes later had them ensconced around the dinner table with a tea from Dobby. "First," Adonis said, "do you remember the locket we found when we came here?" Adonis asked.

"Yes," Harry said. "The Horcrux."

"That confirmed we were dealing with more than initially thought," Adonis said.

"Dumbledore's collected memories confirmed that and more," Xenophilius said. "It took months to go through them, but now that we have, we took immediate action on what we learned."

"We have proceeded under the assumption he made six intentional Horcruxes, and with that hypothesis we believe we have located or at the very least identified almost all of them," Adonis said. "Yesterday, we led several teams in simultaneous missions around the country. With a newly passed law allowing the Ministry to confiscate the belongings of convicted Death Eaters, we were able to obtain the Lestrange Vaults, and found that a priceless cup made by Helga Hufflepuff herself had been made into a Horcrux."

"I led a team to the Gaunt ancestral home," Xenophilius said, "and discovered another Horcrux. It was an heirloom of Gaunt family's."

"My team found a false locket that looked just like the one you found here," Shacklebolt said, "in a cavern guarded by almost three hundred Inferi. We were able to destroy them with minimal losses, but we now have proof that Sirius's brother Regulus attempted to destroy the Dark Lord before his death. He was the reason the locket was in this house."

"And this morning," Adonis said, "we questioned the ghosts of Hogwarts and discovered another Horcrux in the Come and Go Room, as the elves called it. The Diadem of Ravenclaw."

"So," Xenophilius said, "the diary from your second year, the locket, the ring, the cup, the diadem and finally you. Six Horcruxes found and destroyed."

"That should be it, right?" Harry asked excitedly.

"We think there is one more, because you were never an intended Horcrux," Arthur said. "We don't think Voldemort ever really understood what your scar was, so in his mind he only had five. From the memories Dumbledore collected, he wanted six. This means he, in all likelihood, made one more. Our spies tell me that Voldemort's snake Nagini never leaves his side, and has grown large enough to eat a person whole. That is a sign that it has been imbued with magic. There's a better than even chance he made Nagini his last Horcrux."

"And what's really insane," Adonis said darkly, "is that from his notes Albus fully intended you to find these Horcruxes and destroy them yourself ... by yourself! Even after Snape's betrayal and his own long, slow death, he just didn't understand that one person shouldn't have to do it all alone."

"So we have spies within Death Eater ranks?" Ginny asked.

"Not anymore," Shacklebolt said. "Many wizards died to bring us this information."

Harry stared at the man for a moment, and then said, "If you tell me that Voldemort is my father I may have to curse you."

Adonis chuckled while the others looked confused, even Ginny. "Oh yeah," he muttered. "Purebloods."

"Fostered half-blood myself," Adonis said. "I guess that means the Force is with me."

"You're married to a pureblood," Ginny said to Harry with a dangerous tone.

"Then I'd better get us to some movies soon to condition you," Harry grinned at her. "So, what's the next step?"

"Next step," Adonis said, "is to let Albus Dumbledore die. Right now, the Ministry of Magic is too secure to make a good target. Even with moles, Amelia has simply done too good a job weeding out the traitors and tightening defences. Voldemort has hit Muggle sites, but not even he will dare go after Muggle authorities. Additionally, the discovery of a foreign mole in his forces basically bought us this summer while he vetted his own people"

"He's done," Xenophilius said. "He ended up killing at least twenty of his own people, and he's ready to proceed. We've been looking at where he will strike next, and though he might hate Muggles, he's smart enough to know the threat they would represent in an outright war. So, after the Ministry of Magic what is the most strategic target he could go after?'

"Hogwarts," Ginny said.

"And he never has before because he fears Dumbledore," Luna said. "With Dumbledore dead…"

"We think Voldemort will attack the school," Xenophilius said. "And if he does—if he commits his forces and comes out into the open—we'll have him."

"What if he brings more forces to the battle than we have to fight him?" Luna asked.

"Then it will be a very interesting day," Arthur said. "But keep in mind, kids, that Hogwarts has its own defences. The castle is very powerful in and of itself. Minerva has stepped in as the acting headmistress and has had all the wards keyed to her. At the snap of her fingers, she could activate those defences."

"But what about the students?" Harry asked.

"Your defence club," Shacklebolt said. "The training you gave those kids saved their lives, Harry. We would like you to continue it, and concentrate on evacuation procedures for the students to a safe location. Even Susan Bones is going to remain there, because Amelia understands that if we pull out anyone, Voldemort will find out. The training must be done quietly."

"And we're going to sweeten the deal for him, as well," Arthur said. "We're going to hold a Ministry Lockdown drill. Ostensibly, it's going to be a test of Ministry security. Shacklebolt already wrote a memo and sent it to the employees. We have no doubt a copy of that memo will make it to Voldemort's people. On the twelfth of February, which will be seven days after the day we plan to bury Dumbledore, the Ministry and all Ministry personnel will be completely locked in for a period of twelve hours."

"I'm assuming Ministry forces will be hiding somewhere else?" Ginny asked.

"Yes. The lockdown actually will be to protect the Ministry facility and non-combatants while we hopefully engage Voldemort at Hogwarts," Arthur said. "And I hope to Merlin this works, because Amelia is planning on being there personally, along with those Ministry officials who've been properly vetted and former Order of the Phoenix members she is going to deputize. This is an all or nothing gambit."

"And much of it is going to ride on you, Harry and Ginny, in preparing the students as much as you can," Adonis said. "I must stress this—Word of our plans cannot get out. Right now, we in this room are the only ones who know the true extent of our intentions. More will be brought in as we need, but only after they have been put through the most thorough security screening. Do you understand?"

"We do," Harry said, while Ginny held his hand.

"Good," Arthur said. He stood and looked around. "And we would love to have you over for dinner tonight, given it is our last day of the holidays. A Ministry car will pick you up tomorrow morning."

"Dad," Ginny asked. "The Hogwarts Express is vulnerable too. Will there be Aurors on board?"

"Yes," Shacklebolt said. "And they will be very visible. We're hoping that will dissuade an attack until we are able to force the time and place."

"Good," Harry said. "And we'd be glad to come tonight. May Luna come with us?"

Arthur forced a smile. "That would be lovely."

"She promises not to attack anyone," Ginny said. "Right, Luna?"

"Quite so," Luna said. "I'll leave all my knives here."

"Lovely," Arthur said again, dryly.

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987, JR, and Miles for beta reading. As always, they make these chapters better than they could ever otherwise be.


	56. Neutrality

A/N: Chap 55 review responses are in my forums. Four more chapters after this.

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**Chapter Fifty-Six: Neutrality**

Dean Thomas came by on the train to Hogwarts with his now eleven-year-old sister holding his hand. Harry was reading over his Sixth Year potions book with Ginny on one side and Luna on the other, while on the bench opposite Hermione was going over Ron's summer homework one more time.

They all looked up and smiled at Harry's old roommate. "Hey, mates," Dean said hesitantly. "I…this is my sister, Anne. Your portkey, Hermione—the one you gave us last term on the train? It saved our lives this summer. They cursed Anne here, and she would have lost her leg, if not for that portkey. I guess I just…you know, wanted to say thanks."

Hermione looked ready to cry, but Ginny stood and bent down to look at the girl—like Dean she had milk-chocolate coloured skin and large, almond-coloured eyes. "Hello, dear," she said, channelling her mother. "Are you excited to be going to Hogwarts?"

"Yeah," Anne said, nodding energetically.

"She's going to be a Gryffindor for sure," Dean said proudly. "She didn't scream once during the attack. She was braver than I was."

The others in the cabin noticed how tightly Anne was gripping her brother's hand.

"Well, Hermione and Ron here," Ginny said, "they run a special club in the school to help teach kids out to defend themselves better. We're going to have it again this year, and we want you to join. Will you do that for us?"

"Yeah!" Anne said, eyes wide. "That would be great! Will you teach me to make that shield Dean can do? He made the bad wizard's magic bounce back with it."

"We'll teach you," Ginny promised. "And you know what? Dean's in it, and he's pretty good too. So he can help you."

"You bet," Dean said without a hint of embarrassment. "Thanks, guys. And congrats on the marriage. Are you going to be in the dorm?"

"We'll have married quarters just outside the tower," Harry said, having discussed it with Professor McGonagall via Floo.

"Great. Thanks again. See you at the feast."

When he was gone, Ginny turned and smacked Ron's arm. "What?" the bewildered brother said.

"That's for not treating me like Dean does _his_ little sister," Ginny said.

"Well, to be fair, Ginny," Hermione said, "your first year you spent entirely with Harry. Not to say Ron wouldn't have been a prat, but he never really had a chance, you know."

Ginny nodded, then leaned over and kissed Ron's cheek. "That's true. I guess I shouldn't punish you just because you would have been a prat given the chance."

"Thank you!" Ron said. "Hey, wait a minute!"

The doors opened, and this time the Creevey brothers stood there. Like Dean, they profusely thanked not only Hermione for the portkey, but also Harry for the DADA club. "We're going to continue," Harry promised them.

Beaming like it was Christmas morning, the two brothers left the compartment, and the settled back to their studies, only to be interrupted again and again by classmates who survived the summer because of them.

The last interruption, however, was one none of them were expecting. Harry felt the newcomers as buzzing magic and looked up to see Blaise Zabini and Tracy Davis outside the door of their cabin, both looking very uncomfortable.

Harry stood and the two opened the doors of their cabin. "Zabini, Davis," Harry said neutrally.

"Could we talk?" Davis asked, wringing her hands while looking over her shoulder. "In Private?"

Harry stepped back and let them into the cabin. The two Slytherins looked at Ron and Hermione in confusion, and Luna in fear. "We were hoping to speak alone," Zabini said.

"Ron and Hermione are in all the way," Harry said. "Anything you tell us, we'd tell them anyway."

"And Lovegood?" Davis said.

"I'm their Bellatrix Lestrange," Luna said with her ever-present smile. "If they need someone tortured or killed in a brutal and terrible fashion, they call me."

The Slytherins stiffened as if ready to bolt. "Seems Potter can do that all by himself," Davis said bitterly.

"Yes, but I hated doing it," Harry said. "Luna doesn't. What do you want, Davis?"

She bit her lip, so hard it bled. "Daphne was my best friend."

"And you let her die anyway," Harry said without a touch of pity. "Where were her friends when Draco and his gang killed her?"

Davis actually sagged against a wall and slid down to the bench near Hermione. "I was afraid. Draco showed us all his mark. Said the Dark Lord ordered it. How could I fight that? I'm only a half-blood! My mum was Muggleborn. I had no standing in the house."

"Sometimes you have to make your own," Ginny said, surprised at how cold her voice was.

"No point now, you've wiped out every marked Death Eater in Slytherin, and all those would become one," Zabini said, also bitter. "Look, Potter, I'm here because the others asked me to be. There's only a handful of upper years left in Slytherin. We were the neutrals who left when Draco was recruiting. There weren't enough of us to risk going against him, and we weren't foolish enough to openly go against the Dark Lord. But things are different, now. Those of us left will enforce the neutrality. No more taunting, no more fighting. We won't help the Dark Lord or get in your way. All we ask is that your people just leave us alone."

To the side, Tracy had her face covered and was weeping in complete silence.

Harry nodded. "We'll leave you alone. But Blaise, understand this—if Voldemort attacks Hogwarts, and I see a single active student aid him, we'll make sure that student dies first, even if it means stopping whatever fight I'm in at the time."

"I understand," Zabini said. He turned and left; Tracy stood and wiped her eyes. "There are Death Eaters in Ravenclaw too," she said. "And at least one got marked this summer in Gryffindor."

Harry tried to hide his surprise at that news. "Thank you for telling me, Tracey. For what it's worth, I didn't agree with what the Ministry did last year. And I am sorry she died."

Davis nodded before turning to follow Zabini. When they were gone, Harry sank down between his girls. "You know," he said softly, "I think that's the first time it really hit me that those were just kids I killed last year, no different than Dean, or Seamus."

"They were old enough to make a choice to kill," Luna said, while calmly returning to her studies. "And those who are old enough to make a decision to kill are old enough to suffer the consequences of their actions."

"That's rather bloodthirsty, Luna," Hermione said. Luna stared at her, until Hermione looked away. "Well, yes, from you…but Harry, it was in self-defence. They did attack you first. I do wish you could have captured them for prison, but not if it meant your own safety, or Ginny's. You did what you had to do to survive, and I for one am grateful."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

It was startling to see Minerva McGonagall sitting in the centre of the Staff table, where Dumbledore always sat before. It was even more startling to see someone who looked just like Dumbledore sitting two places down, smiling gently at everyone.

As the returning students settled, people kept coming to the Gryffindor table to see Ginny's ring, which she and Harry had found in the Potter vaults. It was a thick, gold band with a two carat diamond ringed by rubies. Harry's was actually the Family Ring, a large, ornate affair that entitled him access to the vaults, now that he was legally considered an adult. Neither wore their rings during training or an active mission.

The articles in the Daily Prophet were muted, again because of the Ministry's newly tightened stance on yellow journalism, but because of the public posting of the banns, it was impossible to keep secret that Harry and Ginny were now married, so no effort was made to try. Hence, the line of people waiting to congratulate them and look at Ginny's ring.

Finally Professor Flitwick let the First Years in to be sorted. The hat sang its normal bit of doggerel calling for house unity before the kids began to be sorted. Harry looked across the hall to the Slytherin table, now half the size of the other tables from both casualties and students who simply did not return. Only three students, all boys, were sorted into the house of the snake, and one of those was a half-blood. On the other hand, the incoming class only had fifteen students, due in large part to the attempted massacres over the summer that frightened many parents away.

McGonagall stood and with a flick of her wand caused a loud BANG that caught everyone's attention.

"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts!" she said. "I am Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, and this being my first year as Head, there are several changes that have been made to the curriculum, some by choice, and some by tragic necessity. First, it is with profound sadness that I must tell you that Professor Bathsheba Babbling, our Muggle Studies professor for the past ten years, has gone missing and is believed dead. Additionally, Professor Trelawney is also missing, although we have reason to believe she has fled the country to parts unknown. At least, it is my sincerest hope that she is safe."

"She's in the Americas," Ginny said.

Hermione leaned forward. "Really?"

"Yeah, we got her out this summer after…well, you know." _After Dumbledore died._ They wanted to protect the source of the prophecy.

McGonagall continued unchecked. "While everyone is aware Professor Dumbledore has retired as Headmaster, he has very graciously offered to take over as the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor for this term due to the ever-present difficulties in finding someone to fill the post. Additionally, I would like to thank Professor Horace Slughorn for returning for one last year. He will also serve as interim head of Slytherin House. Due to a restructuring of classes, as I'm sure our returning second years noticed in their school lists, potions will no longer be taught below third year. This is for safety's sake, and brings our teaching approach for potions in line with International Confederation of Wizards Education Decrees on Potions."

"I also am sad to say that Professor Binns has decided to move on to his next great adventure. This has resulted in a necessary review of our curriculum, which has just yesterday been approved by the Board of Governors. Because of the number of changes, I would like to introduce our entire staff. Horace, please stand."

The pudgy, round-faced man stood with a patently false, self-deprecating smile. "Horace taught here for many years before retiring. He has come back after a few years of retirement at Professor Dumbledore's request. Thank you Horace. Next is Professor Lawrence Schaenger, who will be teaching History of Magic. I daresay the days of sleeping through classes are long past."

The Ravenclaws, as a single unit, stood and began applauding wildly. The professor, an older, thin man with an iron-gray beard, lifted a hand in a half-wave before settling down.

Next stood a younger woman in robes, but underneath those robes she wore a nice, modern pair of woman's trousers and a jumper. "Professor Esmeralda Locherness will be assuming duties as our Muggle Studies professor. Please note that Muggle Studies is now a mandatory class for all students, and will incorporate elements of Muggle School subjects not previously taught here at Hogwarts for students up to Fifth Year. It becomes voluntary thereafter."

Beside her stood a tall man with slicked back dark hair and a handsome, pale face. "Beside her, is Richmont Locherness, Esmeralda's husband, and professor of Wizarding Life Studies. This class is also mandatory for all students below O.W.L.s and voluntary thereafter. This is a new course designed to teach all students about traditional wizarding life, household charms, and wizarding economics. Both Wizarding and Muggle Studies will be concurrent classes."

"That's brilliant," Hermione said, her eyes lit up like torches. "Utterly brilliant. I knew I liked her."

The new Transfiguration professor was an older woman from France, while of course the fake Dumbledore was taking over DADA. Given Harry saw the old wizard's beard flash pink right before he winked, Harry was relatively sure it was Tonks playing the part.

The other professors were introduced, but were the same as in previous years. Finally, Professor McGonagall finished by saying, "Finally, I have no doubt that you have all read the good news of Mr. and Mrs. Potter's nuptials. The staff of Hogwarts wishes the two of them happiness, and will thank you for respecting their privacy and for wishing them the same. We fully expect everyone to treat the issue with the decorum and respect all students deserve. Thank you. Now, let the feast begin!"

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

During the feast, Harry was surprised when Hedwig flew into the great hall and alit on his shoulder with a note. With glance at Ginny, he removed the note from her leg. "McGonagall wants to see us after the feast," he said.

"Probably about our quarters," Ginny said. "I wonder if Fawkes is here already."

The phoenix spent most of the summer growing, and was only starting to fly and flame when they moved into Grimmauld Place. "Probably," Harry said. "Just couldn't stand the thought of placing him in a cage."

"Oh, I know," Ginny said.

They finished eating, and with promises to see Hermione and Ron soon, the two made their way to the Headmistress' office. The Gargoyle moved aside without prompting, and moments later they were riding up to the office.

McGonagall had already made the space her own. All of Dumbledore's odd trinkets were gone, replaced instead by cabinets of scrolls and shelves of books, as well as a nice sitting area with comfortable plush divans near the fire. It was to this area that Harry and Ginny looked with surprise to see not just McGonagall, but Xenophilius Lovegood, and Luna.

"Mr. and Mrs. Potter, please come sit," McGonagall said. She sat on a high-backed wooden chair with an upholstered seat and arms. "You of course know the Lovegoods."

"Biblically," Luna chirped with a serene smile.

"Yes, quite," McGonagall said sourly.

"May we ask what this is about, Professor?" Ginny said.

McGonagall motioned them to sit on a divan, and then offered them tea, which she took a cup of when no one else did. "Harry, Ginny, if I may be familiar, as you may have guessed from the opening speech, a great deal has changed this year. While I had a great deal of respect for Albus, we did have some rather profound disagreements regarding the quality of the teaching at this school, not to even mention some of his more questionable decisions regarding you personally. This had the effect of at once placing you in greater danger, while at the same time protecting you from the consequences of your actions. And yes, before you say anything, I know he did the same with Mr. Malfoy. And we all know how that turned out."

She took a long pull of her tea. "I know the Ministry is very purposefully setting up Hogwarts as a battleground. I despise the very notion of it as highly irresponsible, if not criminally negligent, but in this regard my pleas for sanity have gone unheard."

"Not unheard, Headmistress," Xenophilius said.

Minerva pursed her lips. "Be that as it may, while I may have to bow to necessity in some cases, I feel there is an opportunity going into the New Year to perhaps correct some perceptions. I will be damned if I ever have my students fighting an open battle within these halls again." Her voice rang out through the office with sudden volume.

"I hope not either," Harry said.

She took another sip of tea. "I realize Harry that you did not seek these conflicts out, but you elevated many of them to unacceptable levels. I know what you and Ginny, and Miss Lovegood, are. I understand that in some cases you must act the part of Unspeakables, but that does not exempt you from our rules at any other time. If there is a behaviour issue with a student, then you will bring it to me or to another professor. The root cause of the behaviour that existed in years gone by is gone, and I will not allow such behaviour to return, by any party. Do you understand?"

"Perfectly," Harry said, surprised at the older witch's anger.

McGonagall, perhaps sensing his confusion, sighed deeply. "I discovered some things that were occurring in years past that Albus knew about, and allowed. Which brings us to you, Miss Lovegood, and your father."

"Oh," Ginny whispered, and Harry understood now too, why McGonagall was so angry.

"I have learned that you threatened to kill a fellow student in order to create a vacancy on the Gryffindor Quidditch team during Ginny's first year here. I have learned that for several years your roommates lived in such abject terror of you that they refused to inform anyone that you repeatedly threatened them not just with physical harm, but with the _Cruciatus_ curse as well. Additionally, at some have admitted that you actually physically assaulted them, as well as cursed them. I have learned that you actually did assault Professor Snape, cutting off his fingers and his ear. For all the harm you have suffered in this school, Ms. Lovegood, you have caused so much more. I never, in my life, believed I would encounter a child so lacking in morals or even common humanity, as I find in you."

Luna's serene smile did not flicker at all, while Xenophilius frowned heavily. "And you," she said to the wizard, "I don't give a damned what your justification was; I don't give a damned who you are or what position you hold—it was nothing less than criminal to send that girl to Hogwarts! You knew very well how dangerous she was, and yet you sent her anyway. Worse yet, you have bound her to two of the best students this school has ever seen. You have tainted them and this school, with this amoral monster."

"She is not a monster!" Harry said, flashing anger in his magic.

"But I am, Harry," Luna said. "What I said in the train was true—I am your own personal Bellatrix. I am a monster, but if we are to win the Light needs a monster."

Harry settled back down into his seat. "Professor, she's a part of our team. I know she's not perfect, but she is _ours_."

McGonagall sighed, leaning back in her chair after placing her tea cup back on its saucer and onto the serving tray. "Hence the point of this conversation, Harry. Professor Flitwick, after finally discovering what has happened, has resolutely refused to allow Luna back into the girl's dorms. He feels, with ample justification, that she represents a danger to all other students in Ravenclaw."

Ginny was the first to see it. "She'll live with us, then. She already was doing so at the end of the summer. We're adults now, so you don't need parental consent for us to cohabitate, and Xeno's the reason we're together in the first place, so you know he'll consent."

McGonagall pursed her lips. "It is wildly inappropriate for such a relationship to exist within these halls."

Luna cleared her throat. "I assure you, Professor, we are not the first, nor were such relations limited to just the student body."

"Ms. Lovegood, you are not aiding your case," McGonagall said.

"There is no case to aid, Headmistress. You have already decided to permit it, and I do thank you for that. Harry and Ginny are my anchors, and I would be quite lost without them. What you seek is assurance that we will not flaunt our non-traditional relationship or otherwise embarrass the school."

McGonagall's eyes narrowed. "That would be my expectation."

"We will not do anything to embarrass the school or you, Professor," Harry said. "You have always been the one bastion of fairness here, and I would hate to disappoint you in any way."

"What classes will you be taking?" McGonagall asked.

"Honestly, that Muggle/Wizard class combination is brilliant," Harry said. "I'd be very interested in taking both."

"Me too," Ginny said. "Plus Potions, Runes and Arithmancy, of course. I think we'll also take Care of Magical Creatures too."

"I've seen the curriculum on the new classes," Xenophilius said. "It is a good choice, since the subject matter will ease your transition to a Sixth Form college."

"The entire curriculum has been compressed for those classes," McGonagall admitted. "The Muggle Studies course is actually two hours a day, three days a week, and will include Muggle maths, sciences and economics. Not comprehensive, mind you, but enough of an introduction for students to not be completely lost. Ms. Lovegood, seeing as you already hold five N.E.W.T.s, what is your class selection?"

"Care of Magical Creatures, Herbology, Potions, and the Muggle/Wizard studies courses," she said without blinking.

McGonagall nodded. "Harry, as I'm sure you guessed, DADA is actually going to be taught by Tonks in disguise. She is going to concentrate more on theory since any overt displays of magic will give her away. I understand you are to continue your club?"

"Yes, Professor," Harry said. "We'll also be holding evacuation drills. The Slytherins approached me on the train and asked to be granted neutrality, but they also told me there are at least some marked Death Eaters in the castle. This is Unspeakable territory. We will identify those Death Eaters, but when we have them, we will bring them to you alive to be handed over to the authorities."

"Of course," she said, wide-eyed at the thought of still more Death Eaters in the castle. "Very well, let's get this farce taken care of. Mr. Lovegood, go home. You three, come with me."

She led them back towards Gryffindor tower, but not to the Fat Lady, rather to another portrait a few doors down along the same wall as the entrance to the Gryffindor Tower. This portrait was of Sir Cadogan, a rather comical knight with a moustache that hung down to the cuirass of his elaborate armour.

"You may set your password now," McGonagall said when they arrived.

"Sixty-nine?" Luna suggested.

It was a silent testament to their long relationship with her that Harry and Ginny knew exactly what she was trying to say. It was a testament to McGonagall's experience as a teacher that she did too. "Ms. Lovegood!" the professor said, aghast.

"Yes?" Luna said innocently.

"I have the perfect password," Ginny said. She stepped forward and placed her hand on the portrait. "Nargles."

Sir Cadogan bowed elaborately, and the portrait opened to admit them into their new home. It was actually a joined suite with two separate bedrooms with a shared common room and bathroom. Each room was equipped with a queen-sized four-poster bed, two wardrobes and two desks. While not hugely spacious, their bedroom was comfortable and large enough for Harry and Ginny to access each furniture item without running into each other.

"During the height of enrolment in the eighteen hundreds," McGonagall said, "we had a large number of married couples in sixth and seventh years. These rooms were originally designed for two young married couples to share. It seemed the most appropriate given your… circumstances."

"It'll be perfect," Harry said with a pleased nod. He saw their trunks already set at the foot of a four-poster king-sized bed in one room, while in the other he saw a trunk in Ravenclaw colours. "Professor, so long as she is with us, may Luna visit the Gryffindor common rooms? We will keep her on her best behaviour."

McGonagall did not look happy, but she nodded. "Very well, but she is on probation for the remainder of her stay in this school. And I will hold the two of you responsible for her."

"Good," Ginny said firmly, "because we are responsible for her. We'll take care of her, and keep her under control."

Luna shivered. "That sounds positively exciting."

McGonagall paled, shook her head, and left. When she was gone, Luna clapped her hands. "Oh, whatever should we do now?"

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987, JR, and Miles for beta reading. As always, they make these chapters better than they could ever otherwise be.


	57. Potter's Army

A/N: Review Responses for Chapter 56 are available in my forums. Thank you.

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**Chapter Fifty-Seven: Potter's Army**

The initial excitement over the revised Muggle Studies/Wizarding Life classes lasted until the first day for the First Years, who started complaining that it was as if they never stopped going to Muggle School. Harry was just old enough to know that was the intent.

For the upper years, the classes were different. Esmeralda and Richmont Locherness were themselves Hogwarts graduates—she was a Muggleborn Hufflepuff while he was a Pureblooded Gryffindor. They lived primarily in Muggle Glasgow because of the first war, when they decided to distance themselves from the Wizarding World after Richmont's parents were murdered.

They returned because of what they saw as hope under Amelia Bones's administration, and since both were teachers, a chance to make a difference for the next generation. However, both realized that for older students it would be a challenge.

They started the Muggle Studies classes with placement tests on Muggle academics, concentrating on those aspects essential to survival in a Muggle environment. Harry was surprised to know as many of the answers as he did, but he could see from the disappointment on Ginny's face she did not share his optimism.

The second half of the class was actually Professor Locherness going over each test individually with each student, drawing up a course of study for them. A part of Harry was not surprised that she left Ginny and him for last.

"Mr. and Mrs. Potter," she said primly. "I must admit, Mr. Potter, to some surprise at how well you did."

"Muggle-raised," Harry said.

"Ahh, I see." She looked through the tests. "Mrs. Potter, your scores were slightly above average, but still quite typical for a Pureblood witch. What would you like to get out of this class? Passing familiarity with Muggles, or more?"

"We've been told we would both likely need to go to a…" She struggled a moment. "A sixth form college? I'm not sure we'd need full Uni degrees, but we would likely have to take some classes. I said it right, Harry?"

"Perfect, love."

"And who told you that?" Locherness asked with a raised brow.

"Our friend Hermione Granger," Harry said, realizing quickly that the teachers did not need to know any more.

"Well, then, hmmm. It will be quite a challenge to catch up to your Muggle peers in all subjects, Mrs. Potter."

"Maths and sciences should be sufficient," Harry said. "We'll probably just take the polyglot potion when we've matured enough, so there's no point in studying languages. In fact, there's really not much else we need other than those subjects. If you could get us both caught up in Muggle maths and sciences, we should have enough. My friend Hermione assures me that arithmancy shares many similarities with advanced maths, so hopefully that will help."

"Very well," she said. "I'll draw up a personalized syllabus for you both. Have a good day."

The Wizarding Life class was much less work-oriented, and instead concentrated on a syllabus of economics as it compared to the Muggle world, philosophy of magic, including why spells were classified as they were, and in general lessons geared to teach students how wizarding society worked, its traditions, and its weaknesses.

To say Harry was impressed would have been an understatement. He learned more about the way the Ministry was supposed to work in the first week than in his previous five years of life as a magical being. Even some of the Pureblooded students were surprised to find that the Ministry of Magic was technically a part of Her Majesty's government, though granted autonomy by treaty. Harry was also surprised that wizards participated in both World Wars, since Grindelwald did as well.

The idea of wizards purposely storing their wands to undergo Muggle basic training with the Muggle armed forces struck a chord in Harry. "Professor Richmont," he asked, ("Since my wife is already Professor Locherness" he had said at the start of the class.), "did Professor Dumbledore go through that training?"

"You'd have to ask him, Mr. Potter," Richmont said, "though I would imagine he did at least during the first war."

"I'll ask, thank you." _Maybe his portrait, if it ever wakes._

Although Harry no longer took Defence Against the Dark Arts, after his first week he made a point of visiting the classroom. Despite knowing the truth, it still gave Harry a jolt when the door opened to show Dumbledore's face. "Ahh, Harry, how are you?" he said with a jovial smile.

"Fine, thank you," Harry said. "I came to discuss the DADA club."

"Of course, come in." The moment the door closed, Tonks morphed into her own base shape. She didn't even retain the pink in her hair. "Thank Merlin," she said with sagging shoulders. "It's exhausting to stay in that form all day. I'm glad I'm only doing this one term or I think I'd go barmy."

They spent the next hour comparing notes on what she was teaching in class, and what he would need to make up for in the club practices. "Officially Dumbledore is your sponsor," Tonks said, "but McGonagall knows you're pretty much running the show."

"Thanks, Tonks," Harry said. "Anything I or Ginny can do to help you out?"

"Yeah, can you grade papers for me? I hated paperwork at the DMLE, and it's even worse here!"

"Sorry, you'd have to pay me for that, and I don't think you could afford me," Harry said with a laugh. He thought a moment, and then said, "You know, on some tests you could make your students grade themselves. Make them pass their tests around and then go over the answers at the front of the class. That was something Remus used to do."

"Ohh, Remus!" Tonks said. "I mean, yeah, that's a good idea, but it'd be even better if Remus could help me grade too. Thanks, Harry!"

Shaking his head and grinning, Harry waved and left the room.

When the first DADA club meeting took place, every student in all three houses other than Slytherin attended. As for the House of the Snakes, they enforced their own neutrality, preventing anyone from participating in anything except Quidditch, and even then they would field the youngest team in the school.

It felt odd to be facing three quarters of the entire school. "Well, I'm not going to ask how your summers went," he said.

"Wasn't as good as yours!" a fourth-year Hufflepuff yelled.

When the laughter faded, Harry shrugged. "It definitely had its ups and downs. But it ended with a great note. So, any questions or comments before we get started?"

Dean Thomas stepped forward. "Yeah, we need a name other than just The Club or the DADA Study Club. I say we name it Potter's Army!"

"Yeah, because that won't make the Minister uncomfortable," Ginny muttered, but her concern was drowned out by the cheers of approval from the students. Harry looked over at Hermione, who smiled and shrugged.

"We could name it Students for the Protection of Everyone's Welfare," Ron said.

Those in Gryffindor laughed, until Hermione hit him in the shoulder. Then everyone laughed—it was funny when people hit Ron.

"What do you really think, Gin?" Harry asked her.

She smiled up at him, and said, "If nothing else, we might be able to use the name to finagle another raise. You know, pay the barbarians off to keep them from invading?"

Harry couldn't help but laugh. "Fine, let's put it up to a vote. Everyone for, raise your hands. Now, everyone against raise yours." With the absence of arms, Harry clapped his hands. "All right then, 'Potter's Army' it is. Thank you all very much. Now, I spoke with Professor Dumbledore and we compared notes on what you're doing in class. It's a good thing you're all here, because this club is going to be where most of you learn your practicals. If you don't come, you're not going to pass your exams. Because of that, Professor McGonagall has appointed this as an official school organization, which means that as the appointed leader I have prefect powers while we're together. That means I can award points!"

"Or deduct them," Ron added.

"Only for Seamus, though," Harry said.

"What's that for, Harry?" Seamus called.

"You're just too ugly."

When the laughter settled, Harry continued, "We're also going to be practicing something I like to call a Fire Drill. Some of you who were attacked this summer know just how scary it can be to wake up in the middle of the night to find a Death Eater knocking on your door. We're going to practice escape and evasion drills to help each of you gain the skills you'll need if the war continues into next summer. Now, break by ages. First and second years, you'll be with Cho Chang and Katie Bell. Third through Fourth Years, you'll be with Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. Upper years with Ginny, Luna and me! Form up; we've got a lot of work to cover."

As the smaller groups divided even further, Harry made a point of walking up and down each line of students, talking to or helping each student, as did Ginny. Luna also proved to be an effective tutor, given her successes tutoring the previous year. With each person, Harry pushed a little of his magic out to see what he would encounter.

Five times, he felt something dark and unpleasant in a student's magic, including a Gryffindor seventh year named Cormac McLaggen, who was wasting time bragging about how good he was instead of actually working.

Finally, after reviewing what they should know and what he would be teaching that term, he dismissed his group. Ron and Hermione did the same, and finally Cho and Katie did. The group leaders made their way together.

"Were we ever that small," Hermione asked as the last First Year scampered out.

"No," Ron said.

"Cho, Katie, how'd they do?" Harry asked.

The two seventh years smiled tiredly. "They're cute," Cho said. "Dean's little sister loves you. Better watch out. We also got at least five able to produce a weak stunner, about the same as last year."

"Little girl crushes aren't that bad," Ginny said, a little defensively. The others chuckled a little, until Luna said, "I'm fairly certain, Cho, that your friend Marietta has taken the Dark Mark."

All smiles died a quick and painful death.

"I felt it too," Harry said. "Cho, do you know what she was doing this summer?"

"No ... she wouldn't...!" Cho said quickly. "She and her mum were vacationing in Spain. I received postcards from them!"

"Madame Edgecombe works in the Department of Magical Transportation," Luna noted. "She could directly impact Floo travel."

"Cho, this is very, very serious," Harry said, catching the older girl's eyes. "You can't say a word to her, do you understand?"

Properly intimidated, she nodded. "Are you…are you going to hurt her, Harry?"

"Not unless she attacks me," Harry said. "We're going to inform Professor McGonagall and let her handle it with the Ministry. But Cho, you need to know something. For someone to take the Dark Mark, they must have either killed, or been party to a killing. Remember that. She's not an innocent anymore."

Immediately after they bid goodnight to the other group leaders, Harry, Ginny and Luna presented the list of names to McGonagall, who paled the colour of bone. "McLaggen?" It broke the old witch's heart to see a Gryffindor listed. She closed her eyes and leaned back behind her desk. "How sure are you?"

"Remember last year, when I stopped playing because I could feel the snitch's magic?" Harry asked. At her nod, he said, "I could feel a tiny bit of Voldemort in their magic. I'm sure."

"Very well, I will contact Kingsley. They will be gone tomorrow."

She did not sound happy. As he, Ginny and Luna went back to their room, Luna said, "We should have _obliviated_ Chang and Bell. They may inadvertently give away our knowledge. Bell is a friend of McLaggen's."

"No," Harry said. "Not this year. No unnecessary _obliviations_."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

They had a schedule with Luna, as much for her benefit as theirs. They developed it during that last week of summer when they lived together at Grimmauld place. The weekdays were for Harry and Ginny alone, but on Friday and Saturday nights, Luna joined them provided her behaviour for the week was good.

It felt odd, laying down the law as if Luna were a child, but Healer Richardson warned them this would be the way they would have to handle Luna, and Harry had to admit it worked. And so the weekend nights were Luna's reward for being good through the week.

Therefore, when Harry's and Ginny's Unspeakable badges began howling from their trunks, Luna was in her own room because it was a school night. Harry shot up first, his heart thudding with the sudden rush of adrenalin that transitioned him from sound asleep to wide awake. He was already digging in his trunk by the time Ginny was out of bed. Both teens were as naked as the day they were born—even if they did nothing more than cuddle, the sheer pleasure of touching made wearing pyjamas seem silly.

A moment later Luna wandered into their room, equally starkers with her hair mussed and wild from sleep. Harry didn't even glance at her as he pulled his badge out. The moment it touched his hands it stopped howling and a tinny voice that sounded like Adonis shouted, "Situation at Hogwarts! Don cloaks and assist Aurors on site."

Luna turned and ran back to her room, only to emerge a second later with her boots and cloak. She did not even bother to dress first before throwing her Unspeakable cloak on, and following her lead neither did Harry or Ginny. They paused only long to put on footwear and for Harry to grab the Marauder's Map. They knew something was wrong the moment they emerged from their room and saw a red-cloaked figure on the ground near the entrance to the Gryffindor tower.

"McLaggen," Harry growled. He opened the map, said the passphrase, and started scanning signatures. He found McLaggen and Edgecombe moving down the second floor corridor, but what concerned him was that they had Nymphadora Tonks between them. Further away, three other Ravenclaws were fighting a group of Aurors, likely providing Cormac and Marietta the distraction they would need to escape.

"No time to catch them on foot," Harry said.

"I guess that really is a broom in your pocket, then," Ginny snickered, before pulling out her own. Since the Winter Holiday, they had kept their brooms in their Unspeakable Robes at all times, shrunken and ready to use. Moments later they were soaring through the halls of the castle. Luna trailed behind, being neither as skilled nor as confident on a broom as Harry and Ginny.

They found the culprits on the first floor, just short of First Year's entrance. They must have had a boat standing by, or possibly brooms. The saw immediately that Tonks was stunned and levitating between the two young Death Eaters. Though she was wearing Dumbledore's robes from her day of teaching, she was clearly in her own form. If McLaggen or Marietta got Tonks out, Voldemort would know everything.

Rather than risk Tonks with a more powerful curse, Harry sent a stunner. McLaggen shielded, while Marietta cast the killing curse with an expression of utter hate. The viciousness of the attack caught Harry by surprise—he narrowly avoided the curse, but lost control of his broom when he slammed into a wall into a process.

Ginny did not hesitate a moment. She dismounted with a roll, brought her wand up and cast a silent disarming hex. Again McLaggen blocked it, though it made his arm kick back at the effort, and again Marietta cast a killing curse.

Ginny rolled away from the curse, conjured a wall for cover, and started to cast again when a silver knife came spinning through the air to land with a wet thunk in Marietta's shoulder.

"Shit!" she screamed. It bought Luna time to dismount, while to the side Harry regained his feet and poured his magic into a wind spell.

In an instant, the large antechamber where the First Years gathered before the sorting turned into a maelstrom. Marietta screamed again before the wind blew her into the air, while McLaggen clutched desperately at the flagstones on the floor.

"_Accio_ Tonks!" Ginny called aloud, as much so Harry would hear her as to actually cast the spell. Tonks sped toward her in an unconscious lump, momentarily saved from the worst of the wind.

When Harry ended the spell, Marietta fell awkwardly. Everyone heard the cringe-worthy _snap_ of her arm breaking. McLaggen, who somehow managed to stay on the ground, started shouting off hexes, jinxes and curses while backing up toward Marietta. Harry did not bother with anything fancy—he conjured water, but in a stream so tight and powerful it blew the other Gryffindor off his feet and slammed him into the far wall.

Meanwhile, Ginny had _enervated_ Tonks. "Resume your Dumbledore face!" she hissed.

Still groggy, Tonks did just that, before standing unevenly. In the corridor, people were coming at a fast run. Luna walked past Ginny's conjured wall and looked down at the two defeated students.

"We need to kill them," she said coolly. "Even an _obliviate_ is not perfect—if Voldemort finds out, the whole school will be in jeopardy."

"That's not your call," Tonks said shakily.

"Better to ask forgiveness," Luna said, before without blinking an eye she cast a pair of killing curses. McLaggen was already unconscious, but Marietta had a moment of horror to realize what Luna was going to do before she slumped over dead.

"Luna!" Tonks said, horrified.

"This falls under mission security," Ginny said, saddened but also determined. "Tonks, you're not an Unspeakable. We cannot risk anyone finding out Dumbledore is dead before we're ready. If Snape could recover his memories from an _obliviate_, then Voldemort could recover them as well, from anyone. We're can't risk that."

"Harry, surely you don't agree!" Tonks said desperately. "She just murdered those kids!"

"I'm not bloody happy about it," Harry said, "but Luna was right. Your identity as Dumbledore cannot be compromised. Luna is our Control—during a mission she gets to make the call if necessary. I'm sorry, _Professor Dumbledore._"

Right then, Shacklebolt and McGonagall arrived. "What's happening here?" Shacklebolt said.

"Cormac McLaggen and Mariette Edgecombe attempted to stun and abduct Professor Dumbledore," Harry said, staring hard at the Auror. Shacklebolt paled as realization hit how close their subterfuge had come to failing. "Unfortunately, Unspeakable Nemesis was forced to cast two killing curses to save the Professor since both students were aggressively resisting arrest."

From Shacklebolt's perspective, he saw a tall Unspeakable in a shrouded cloak, speaking in a filtered, magically altered voice. Two other Unspeakables nodded their agreement. He knew that it was Harry, Ginny and Luna, them being the only Unspeakables in the castle, but facing them in their robes over the bodies of two dead students, he could not help the shiver than ran down his back.

"You killed them?" McGonagall hissed.

"It will be in our report," Harry said in his most business-like approach. "Mission parameters have been upheld. We will be returning to the Ministry for debriefing."

"I daresay you shoudn'a come back," McGonagall said with a hint of her Scottish brogue. "You promised!"

"Miss Edgecombe cast at least four killing curses," Ginny said. "As a _priori incantatem_ will reveal. Mission parameters have been upheld."

With that, the three teens left the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and the Headmistress of the school to argue, while they gathered their brooms and flew out of the First Year entrance over the lake. As soon as they were beyond the wards, they apparated directly to the Department of Mysteries for what promised to be a very long debriefing.

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987, JR, and Miles for beta reading. As always, they make these chapters better than they could ever otherwise be.


	58. Not To Plan

A/N: As Always, responses to the last chapter's reviews were posted to my forums, the URL of which is in my profile (since the link is gone). Two chapters and an epilogue left!

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**Chapter Fifty-Eight: Not to Plan**

McGonagall would not look at them the next night at dinner. There were no expulsions or repercussions from what happened.

Harry, Ginny and Luna spent much of the previous night doing their debrief of the incident. All three submitted Pensieve memories as well, redacted to hide their roles and also to hide the true appearance of 'Albus Dumbledore'.

Neither Adonis nor Zeus himself made any comment on the fact that Luna killed two already subdued students, other than when Zeus said, "We are not Aurors. Your actions were appropriate to uphold mission parameters. It was the DMLE that chose to seek our assistance. Dismissed."

And so, exhausted, the three returned to Hogwarts by Apparating, and then flying their brooms directly to their quarters, passing through the windows of their rooms. Being current students, the castle wards allowed them to do so, but Harry also had no doubt those same wards advised McGonagall of their return.

As they settled in, all together this time, Ginny said, "Harry, I feel bad that I'm not more bothered by this. I mean, they were beaten."

Luna, who lay between them, said, "They chose their own fate. They were dead the moment they came into information we could not let them have. Realistically, I doubt Zeus would have allowed them to leave the castle alive."

Harry looked over Luna's head at Ginny. He knew Luna was incapable of regret, and would not feel anything different if the two dead students were perfectly innocent. But his wife— "You know, during Fourth Year after the World Cup, I walked up to the Slytherins. I told them if they ever joined Voldemort, I would kill them. I said I'd feel bad about it but I would kill them. And now every one of them except of Tracey is dead. Maybe Blaise—I can't remember if he was there or not."

"Do you think Draco ever really had a choice?" Ginny said.

"He did," Luna said with even certainty. "None of his choices were good, but they were choices. Ask Dumbledore for help and leave the country, or stay and fight for the light; or become a servant to darkness. It is unlikely he saw those choices, but they were there. Edgecombe and McLaggen had the same choices available, and made the same mistakes."

She turned to Harry, but then slid over him and out of bed. "You two need to have sex. It will make you feel better. I hope this will not impact my time this weekend."

"It won't," Harry and Ginny both promised.

The Ravenclaw nodded before padding naked back to her room. When she was gone, Ginny said, "Well, she is our Control. We'd better do what she says."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

McGonagall did not bother them that night, and after a few hours of sleep they attended classes as normal. The news shook the school—two students dead and another three in custody—all bearing Dark Marks. On the other hand, Harry's name was not attached to the incident. The story was that the Unspeakables assisted in the incident. Nor was there mention made of the fact that the most powerful wizard in England was subdued and kidnapped by two kids.

Tonks, even wearing Dumbledore's beard, did not look happy about that at all. "They got the drop on me while pretending to have questions," she confessed the next night to the trio. "I don't think they were sure, until after."

She assured both Harry and Ginny that neither appeared to have any means of communicating their information outside the castle. Still, it implied that Voldemort at least suspected something was not right.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

The next Saturday, Auror Proudfoot arrived at the castle while Harry, Ginny and Luna were eating breakfast. Resplendent in his Auror robes, he walked past the tables to the staff table, where he leaned over and whispered something to a furiously blushing and smiling Septima Vector. When he left, she watched him move with a hungry expression.

Harry felt Ginny chuckle, but he was too busy watching the determined expression on the man's face. "Auror Proudfoot," he said, standing to greet him. "Not a social visit?"

"Not until after noon," Proudfoot said with a goblin-like grin. "Until then your arses are mine. Finish your breakfasts—we're in the second corridor of the West Wing, room 1123."

With that, he walked away. Ron, Hermione and Neville were sitting close by, watching the exchange. "What was that about?" Ron asked.

"Physical combat training," Harry said as he sank back down.

"Can we come?" Hermione asked brightly.

"Hermione, he broke my leg during a lesson last year," Ginny said. "And it wasn't an accident."

Hermione blanched, while a piece of bacon fell out of Ron's mouth. "Oh, okay," she said quickly. "Well, good luck!"

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Classes settled back into a routine, as did Potter's Army. Harry found that he really did enjoy teaching, and because the club concentrated solely on the practical aspects of Defence, they progressed very quickly. Twice they ran Fire Drills, while in mid-October they practiced a combat drill, splitting students into teams of five for mock-combat exercises with a ten galleon prize for the surviving team.

Interestingly enough, Neville's team beat out a team of seventh years to take the prize.

They received reports from Adonis regularly, but Voldemort's forces were laying low. Unspeakables overseas had evidence that he was recruiting heavily from the continent, but so far he had not shown his hand. It seemed a respite for Harry and Ginny and the roughly nine hundred students of Hogwarts.

Unfortunately, the respite didn't last long.

The trouble started when witches and wizards began Flooing into Hogsmeade one weekday in early November. The ground had a very light dusting of snow from the previous night's storm and the air was cold, but without the biting, bitter cold that would come later in the winter. The Hogshead saw the first few wizards arrive.

Aberforth Dumbledore noticed the men with narrowed eyes—he knew at least two by name as Death Eaters. However, few people knew Aberforth's surname, and he kept it that way for a reason. The Death Eaters merely nodded to him, and as much for self-preservation as anything else, he nodded back.

Still more arrived, and more. He ordered his assistant Bitters to watch the bar and carefully made his way to the back of the bar to send a _Patronus._ Unfortunately, while few knew he was Albus Dumbledore's brother, some did.

"And what are you doing outside on a bracing day like this?" a silky voice demanded.

Aberforth turned and saw Lucius Malfoy stepping out of an alleyway behind him. "Fresh air, what's it to you?" the old wizard said gruffly.

"You wouldn't be thinking of sending a warning to your brother, would you?"

Aberforth spun at the new voice and saw Narcissa Malfoy watching. He'd known both while they were kids at school, and had seen them as adults as well. However, something was different about them. Lucius did not look like the polished, genteel purebred he pretended to be—his cheeks were hollow, his skin sallow and his eyes looked haunted. He had the look of a man who lost his only son.

Narcissa, however, looked triumphant, and had a glow Aberforth had recognized on witches as pregnancy. He could barely see a swelling in her stomach. "What do you want?" he demanded.

"Harry Potter, of course," Lucius said. "He killed my son."

"He's not here."

"Of course not," Narcissa said. "We know exactly where he is. Unfortunately, we want our visit to be a surprise."

While she was speaking, holding Aberforth's attention, Lucius cast the killing curse. The old wizard dropped dead without a sound. Inside, it was easy enough to take care of Bitters. With that, the Floo began to billow non-stop as Dark Wizards poured in. Moving about with disillusionment charms and stealth as opposed to their normal methods, it took them less than an hour to capture the village.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Amelia Bones was working at her home office rather than at the Ministry when a communication mirror on her desk flashed, replaced a moment later by Kingsley Shacklebolt's face. "Minister! Death Eaters have infiltrated the Ministry. I've ordered all Aurors in to return to handle the threat."

"How many DEs?"

"Almost fifty. They managed to break through our defences and are holding ten Wizengamot elders hostage!"

"Damn!" Ordinarily she would have just let Shacklebolt handle it, but with Wizengamot members involved, it became a political issue and over his pay grade. "All right, I'm coming in." She tapped the mirror, and said, "Zeus."

A moment later she saw Xenophilius Lovegood's dark-countenanced face. "You heard?"

"I heard, and I don't buy it," he said. "This smells like a distraction. You have three hundred active duty Aurors and another five hundred Hit Wizards. Leave a hundred Aurors and your Hit Wizards outside under my orders. Most of my Unspeakables are in the field and can be easily recalled."

Amelia sighed. "I agree. I'm going in now."

"Be careful. Bagnold will kill me if I let you get yourself killed."

"Oh, I know."

With that, Amelia ran to her closet and donned her body armour underneath her robes before Flooing directly to her office, where Shacklebolt was waiting. "Shack, how many or our people came in?"

"Waiting on about a third," he said.

"Change of plan. This smells like a diversion to me. Keep a third of the Aurors and half of the Hit Wizards outside the ministry on standby."

Shacklebolt nodded, grinning slightly. "You're right. I'll get the message out. The Death Eaters have holed up in Courtroom Ten."

By the time Amelia arrived, the corridors around the courtroom were filled with Aurors and Hit Wizards covering every possible exit. Being deep within the Ministry, there was no possibility of Apparating, leaving the Death Eaters hopelessly trapped.

"Who do they have?" she demanded when she arrived.

"Nott, McLaggen, Borsters, Greengrass, Huffington, Arlington, Dimling, Gayle, Stannings and Bellefeur," Shacklebolt said.

Amelia felt a pit of ice form in her stomach. Nearly the entire Pro-Pureblood coalition within the Wizengamot was in that chamber, and everyone was thought to support Voldemort to some extent or another, save for Antonius Greengrass, who was the only one to openly oppose the Dark Lord because of the death of his daughter. And yet, the Ministry had made an enemy of the man through the smear campaign of Daphne Greengrass's reputation.

If he thought he could buy protection for his surviving girl, he might…

"This is a trap," she decided. "Aurors," she called aloud, "seal all entrances." Turning to Shacklebolt, she said, "We'll evacuate the Ministry until the situation is resolved except for personnel you need to take out whoever is in that room. I don't know what Voldemort is planning, but this…what's that?"

The hair on the back of her arm started to rise; around her other Aurors also felt a build-up of magic. From the cracks around the doors of the courtroom, she saw a brilliant light. "Morgana," she said. "Everyone, get out now!"

Even as she yelled the warning, Shacklebolt had grabbed her robes and started pulling her away from the doors. The Aurors, trained enough to react instantly, also started running, when a loud, piercing hum came from within the courtyard. A few Aurors, realizing they could not escape, summoned their most powerful shields just as the courtroom exploded.

Overhead, throughout the ministry, alarms began to blare, and the newly built ward scheme that was designed to lock the Ministry down for when they ambushed Voldemort activated, effectively trapping the survivors.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Harry's DoM badge began vibrating hard against his thigh, so hard that Professor Vector could hear. "Mr. Potter, is there something you need to take care of?" she asked archly.

"Evidently. Sorry, Professor." He stood and walked out of the room before holding the badge to his ear. Instantly he heard Zeus's voice speaking normally. "Apollo, Code Red. We have lost contact with the Ministry, we believe there was an explosion and the whole building is locked down. We have also lost contact with our eyes in Hogsmeade. We believe there is a strong chance our plan has been found out. Lock the castle down now, we'll get what help we can to you."

Ginny was already standing in alarm when he stepped back in. Forcing calm, Harry said, "Professor, I'm sorry to interrupt, but we may have a situation. Could you please ask the Headmistress to lock down the castle and activate all defence wards?"

Vector dropped her chalk. "Excuse me?"

"Do it, professor," Harry said an edge of command in his voice. "Do it now. PA team members, gather your teams. We may not be able to evacuate. Fourth years and below are to report to the Great Hall. Move people, we don't have time. Ginny, we need to get our armour."

"Harry, what's happening?" Hermione asked.

"We've lost contact with the Ministry—it's completely locked down—and our people in Hogsmeade have gone silent. Move, Hermione, there's no time to waste."

Perhaps because Harry was able to keep his voice calm, or because of the intense training all the students had gone through over the last two months—whatever it was, Harry felt a sense of profound pride at how calm and determined the sixth-year students were as they rushed out of the classroom to start alerting the others.

Vector used the Floo to contact McGonagall, and moments later Harry could feel the castle wards begin to activate.

"Do we use our robes?" Ginny asked as she joined Harry out in the hall. Around them, students were quickly mobilizing as if it were another fire drill. Prefects were leading the lower years to the Great Hall, while the older students formed into their teams and started to take strategic positions around the castle.

"No," Luna said, suddenly just appearing between them. "Harry is not acting as an Unspeakable. He's acting as the leader of the students. They need to see his face and know he is there."

"We never planned on students fighting!" Ginny said desperately.

"We also planned on having an army of Aurors and Hit Wizards here," Harry pointed out. The three ran to the Headmistress's tower, only to see her leaving with Pomfrey and Flitwick at her side.

"Mr. Potter, I hope you have a good explanation for this," she said.

Harry did, sharing with her what Zeus said. They walked as they spoke, and by the time they reached the main courtyard and the stone carriage bridge, she realized with a shock that Harry was not lying.

The hill opposite the gorge was filled with acromantulas. "Oh Morgana, help us!" the Headmistress said. "Filius, Poppy, help me!"

They raised their wands, and Harry stepped back, feeling a touch of awe as the three experienced teachers began weaving the existing Hogwarts wards into a powerful protective field. Not only could he feel the magic being used, he could see the individual threads they were using.

The professors were not casting spells, they were literally weaving the wards, pumping their magic into it to make them strongest. "Professors," he said, "if I add my magic, can you use it?"

Flitwick and Sprout did not know what Harry was, but McGonagall did. Even while manipulating magic overhead, she nodded. Harry, with Ginny at his side, stepped to the clumping of professors, raised their wands, and began pouring magic into the shield. Filius and Sprout actually stopped, staring in shock at the powerful, combined magic that poured from the teens.

"Brilliant!" Flitwick said. "You're as strong as Albus. But why isn't he here helping?"

"Because he's dead, Filius," McGonagall said. "He died at the end of last year. The Ministry was playing a game to try and catch You-Know-Who, and it failed miserably."

The wards solidified, but unfortunately several acromantulas managed to get in. To the shock of Filius and Sprout, Luna danced forward, conjured javelins, and banished them like bullets at the four monstrous spiders that broke through the wards before they were set. The monsters screamed as they were impaled against the walls around the courtyard.

Beyond, the monsters continued to run forward, only to explode into dust as each one passed the wardline. However, behind the car-sized spiders came building-sized giants and trolls, and among them, a sea of black robes.

"Well, it looks like he has been recruiting," Luna noted. "There are easily a thousand wizards out there, a dozen or so giants, eight trolls and…well, the spiders appear to be quite stupid, don't they?"

Indeed, almost all of the spiders had killed themselves on the wards, but the giants did not, coming to a stop on the edge of the line. As they were watching, a Patronus in the shape of an otter came bounding into the courtyard, stopping before Harry. "Werewolves at the Hogsmeade Bridge," Hermione said. "Hundreds."

"That's a lot more than projected," Ginny said, paling. "How did he recruit so many?"

"That's not important now," Luna said.

"Headmistress," Harry said, "does the castle have any active defences?"

"It does," McGonagall said resolutely. She raised her wand, and once again Harry felt the castle wards respond to her, as the Headmistress. The wave of magic spread through the entire school, and where it touched, every suit of armour—every gargoyle or statue—came to life and began rallying together.

"Come on, we need to get moving," Harry said.

They found most of the rest of the staff in the Great Room with the younger students, and two fire teams of Fifth Years. "Professor Babbling!"

The Ancient Runes professor looked toward them from the pocket of third year she was trying to comfort. "Yes?"

"We need explosive rune tiles," he said. "As many as you can make. We need to be able to use adhering charms on them." He spun and cast a Patronus, and a few minutes later Neville and his team of sixth year Gryffindors arrived.

"Yeah, Harry?"

"Nev, you up to placing some surprises on the walking bridge for those werewolves?" he asked.

"Figure I can do that."

"Do you know the disillusionment charm?"

"No," Neville said.

"Then pay attention, because you're about to learn."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Three Unspeakables apparated into the edge of Hogsmeade, and immediately came under spell fire. One was hit by a flash of green light and dropped like a board. A second was hit by a splash of purple that dissolved against the protection charms of the robe, but also left the robe scorched. The two survivors quickly spun away.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Harry's badge buzzed. "Zeus!" he said. "The castle is surrounded by hostiles!"

It was Adonis, however, who answered. "We figured that out. They have Hogsmeade. The Ministry is still locked down, and we have no estimate of how long it'll take to resolve that. We have fifty Unspeakables en route with all remaining Hit Wizards and Aurors, around three hundred all told. They'll approach the First Years entrance on brooms."

"Adonis, it may not be enough," Harry said. "Voldemort's forces are significantly larger than predicted."

"We'll do what we have to," Adonis said. "This is the first time he's sent his forces out into the open—we have to take advantage of it while we can. Coordinate with McGonagall to get the friendly forces in. Zeus is leading them personally."

"Understood," Harry said. He slipped his badge back into his pocket just as McGonagall arrived into the great hall. "Professor, I've learned that reinforcements are on the way. They'll be coming by broom to the first year's entrance."

"I'll go get them in," Flitwick volunteered, running in his tiny gait toward the anteroom.

"How many?" McGonagall said.

"Not enough to fight on their own," Harry said grimly. "Professor, at least some of our teams are going to have to fight. I'm sorry."

Suddenly a loud buzzing overrode any speech. A terrifying, familiar voice said to the whole school, "_Harry Potter. How brave. How foolish. Your precious Ministry has been destroyed and the stragglers are not enough to protect you. Your school defences will fall. You have lost already, Harry. All that remains for you is the death of all those you love. Remember my words, Harry. Your hubris will destroy all. For their sake alone, surrender to me, and I shall be merciful. You have one hour before my mercy comes to an end_."

"You know he's full of blarney, right?" Ginny said.

Harry was looking at the faces of the students around him, but they looked back with raised chins and defiant eyes. Finally, he looked at McGonagall. "Mr. Potter," she said stiffly, "do you think I would ever willingly give up one of my Lions without a fight? I am a Gryffindor, after all."

"We're behind you, Harry!" Neville said from his place by the table were Professor Babbling was hastily preparing blasting rune tiles.

"Where are the Slytherins?" Luna asked.

"Locked in the Dungeons," Horace Slughorn said as he joined the discussion. "They voted as a house to stay out of it."

"Cowards," Ginny spat.

"Children." Slughorn corrected her. "The fact you two are fighting is a travesty."

"Yeah, we've heard that before," Harry said. With a nod at the professors, he walked over to Babbling and Neville's team, which included Seamus, Dean, Ron, Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil. Ron and Hermione's team had Faye Dunbar and the Creevey brothers.

"Professor, could those tiles take out the Forest Bridge?"

Babbling looked up and grinned, looking younger than her fifty years. "Mr. Potter, these rune tiles will do their job. This runic combination is highly unstable, and I've keyed them into a master switch. If you know your business, you'll get as many of those werewolves onto the bridge as you can before you blow it." She finished the last tile, showing a stack of twenty. "One on each side, every ten feet on the Hogwarts side of the bridge. This last tile is the master switch. Touch it with your wand and say, 'Activate' and it will set them all off."

"Brilliant," Harry said, seeing the possibilities. "Professor, do you think you could do that array on something like say…a Frisbee?"

"Something we can throw across the gorge," Ginny added.

Babbling actually clapped her hands. "Oh, it's just like the Battle of Crecy! You know, many of the casualties attributed to each cannon fire actually came from explosive runic arrays from the English wizards who fought for Henry. Oh, how wonderful! I'll get right on it."

The rest of the students stared at the excited professor in confusion. "Wish she taught history," Neville finally said.

"Be quick," Harry said. "We only have an hour."

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987, JR, and Miles for beta reading. As always, they make these chapters better than they could ever otherwise be.


	59. Time's Up

A/N: I'm posting the last chapters of the story all together for the conclusion. I hope you enjoyed. Review Responses for Chap 58 are in my forums, and final review responses will come in a few days.

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**Chapter Fifty-Nine: Time's Up**

Harry had never felt such relief as he did when the cavalry, such as it was, arrived.

The Unspeakables led the way on their brooms, flying low over the lake. Voldemort had thought of this, evidently, and had two dozen wizards on brooms hovering nearby. However, a force of almost three hundred Unspeakables, Aurors and Hit Wizards blew through them without even pausing, leaving the twenty or so dark wizards dead or dying in the lake, where the squid played roughly with them before feasting.

In a separate group following the Hit Wizards, came former Order of the Phoenix members, deputized by the Ministry following Dumbledore's death. Remus Lupin led the way, with Moody, Dedalus Diggle, almost the entire Weasley family, and several of Harry's former classmates. Oliver Wood was there with Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet, as were several others Harry did not even recognize, almost a hundred in all.

Harry managed to get down to Filius as they arrived.

"Apollo," the lead Unspeakable said in a filtered voice that Harry recognised as Xenophilius Lovegood. "What is the status of the castle?"

"Sir, secure at the moment," Harry said, while the gathering forces looked on assessing the situation. "I have a student fire team mining the Forest Bridge against a possible werewolf incursion. Fire teams have assumed strategic positions around the castle. I would recommend using these teams as guides and runners. Fifth years and above only. All younger children are in the Great Hall with most of the staff. Voldemort has given me an ultimatum to surrender in one hour or he will attack. It has been forty-eight minutes."

"You will not surrender," Zeus almost growled.

"Wasn't planning on it, sir. It's much better to make the enemy die for their cause than to die for mine."

"Good lad." He turned to the assembled forces. "I am the Head Unspeakable, Code-Name Zeus. Harry Potter is a duly sworn member of the Ministry forces and acting as my second in command until we are able to determine the status of the Minister. You are to coordinate your battle plan with his forces. And do not mistake age for inability. Mr. Potter and his wife have been tested in battle more than most of you."

Harry was scanning the Unspeakables, though, until he saw a set of familiar tubes.

"Snorkacks?"

"Ne'er leave home without 'em," came the familiar, harsh voice of the Snorkack Hunter from their botched Holiday mission last year.

"Onto the roof with you," Harry said. "Take positions on the crenellations. There are giants."

"We got armour piercing munitions this time," came the happy response. "Come on lads, we're going to blow shite up, oh happy day!" The ten men in Unspeakable cloaks ran into the castle to head for the roof facing the main bridge.

They moved to the front courtyard just as Seamus came running up. "Charges set," he said, huffing.

"Great job, Seamus," Harry said. "Head on back, and keep your head down, yeah?"

"Yeah," Harry's old roommate smiled back.

Harry turned to Zeus. "Where's Adonis?"

"Trying to get the Ministry open," Zeus said. "Remember, Harry, that we need the snake destroyed too."

The buzzing returned, and with it Voldemort's sibilant. "_Harry Potter, I am disappointed in you. Because of you, there shall be no mercy. Anyone who opposes me will die this day_."

"Yeah, yeah, get on with it," Harry muttered.

Suddenly they heard a high-pitched roar, and suddenly a beam of light as thick as a limb struck the wards of the castle. Harry almost swayed from the sheer, astounding power of it. Beside him, Ginny grabbed his hand.

"It's so strong," Harry whispered.

"Harry!" Ginny hissed. "What you put into the ward was just as strong!"

"She's right, Mr. Potter," McGonagall said. "As hard as it is to believe."

"The ward is still coming down, though," Harry noted.

"It is much easier to attack a set point than defend a wide area," Zeus said. "That has always been the case. The wards did what we needed—they bought us time. Now the time is up." Zeus's voice boomed across the castle. "Fire teams at the ready! Lethal curses are authorized!"

Ahead of them, the ranks of living statuary waited to meet the enemy. Harry took Ginny's hand and said, "Ready to go slay some giants?"

She grinned at him. Luna stayed with her father, acting as much as his bodyguard as a soldier under his command.

The shield began to crackle, and then fell. Immediately, dark wizards, giants and trolls began to march onto the sturdy bridge connecting Hogwarts with the main road to Hogsmeade. In the distance, they heard a hollow thump as the walking bridge that led into the Forbidden Forest blew up, hopefully taking some werewolves with it.

Ahead of them, the statuary charged forward, unheeding of the massive clubs the giants and trolls used to knock them aside. The defenders were not without their victories, though. Two trolls went down to the suits of armour, while a giant howled as a squad of gargoyles pushed him over the edge of the bridge.

From the top of the castle, a rush of hot air and exhaust trails marked the launch of shoulder-to-ground missiles that slammed into two of the giants. The explosions were much more powerful than Harry saw over the winter holiday, killing one giant completely and leaving the other so badly wounded he could not defend himself against the statuary.

Then wizards began to Disapparate from the front line of the attacking army, and they knew the battle was fully joined. With the wards gone, there was nothing to prevent the enemy from Apparating anywhere within the castle walls

The next volley of rockets was much more haphazard—only three flew out, instead of the ten. The Hunter's team was obviously under attack. From their sheltered position by the archway, Harry and Ginny picked out the nearest giant, and with simple but powerful levitation charms sent the monster plummeting over the side of the bridge.

A wizard appeared behind them with a pop, only to arch his back and sprout a silver tip in the centre of his chest, before falling over. Luna waived cheerily before moving on to her next target. Harry and Ginny did the same, levitating another giant, and then a troll, and then two more giants.

More and more wizards were Apparating into the courtyard, where they were met by Zeus, Luna and the Unspeakables. The battles were short and vicious, and given Unspeakable training, decidedly lop-sided. Harry and Ginny continued to use the time to eliminate the large targets, knowing that a giant's club could wreak havoc on any defensive line.

Five rockets shot out from the castle and impacted the second to last giant, exploding against his stomach and spilling his entrails over the wizards below him, while Harry and Ginny levitated the last to its death. They fell back to Zeus and Luna.

"The Great Hall has Anti-Apparition wards established, by the staff" Zeus said. "The rest of the castle is wide open. Any sign of Voldemort?"

"Net yet," Harry said. "Can't even feel him."

"The man is a coward," Zeus growled. "He won't come himself until he is assured of victory."

Harry, though, looked back out across the battle. The whole castle was alight with exchanges of spellfire. "Zeus, maybe I should seek him out."

"What?" Ginny asked, incredulous.

"No, wait," Harry said. "Ginny, you take my cloak. I think I can find him. I take a small party with me—Williamson and his team- to deal with his hangers on. And when I engage him, Ginny, you take a shot. If nothing else, it might distract him."

Zeus decided in an instant. "Go. Do not engage if you don't have tactical advantage. You're too important to throw away on a lost cause. If you think you're losing, Apparate away. Better to lose Hogwarts entirely than our only hope of eventually beating the bastard."

"Pan!" Harry yelled, using Williamson's call sign. It was a round-about joke—Williamson, being the Ministry's scapegoat, thought having a call sign for a satyr was appropriate. "Your team with me. We're scouting!"

Williamson didn't bother to respond, or if he did it was on the Unspeakable charm in their hoods so Harry couldn't hear. The man and five of his fellow Unspeakables broke away from the fight and joined Harry and Ginny, and Luna of course came as well. Neither of the other teens even made mention of it.

"What's the plan?" Williamson called as they ran toward the lake.

"We're going to find Voldemort and kill him," Harry said. "You're with me since he's not alone. Kill on sight, no quarter, no matter what. His snake is highest priority."

Williamson, aware of the Horcruxes and Nagini's status as one, nodded mutely. Before they reached the tree line they mounted their brooms. As they did, they were able to see the shattered wreckage that used to be the wooden forest bridge. A hundred or so werewolves who did not know how to Apparate stood on the far side of the gorge, while those that could were already fighting in the castle.

"Professor Babbling likes making explosives," Harry said. He pulled several stone disks from his pocket as they flew, charging them before throwing them at the werewolves. The disks, perhaps ten inches wide and an inch thick in the middle, exploded with the same power as the Snorkack's rockets, killing dozens of the werewolves.

"Let's go invisible," Harry said. He tossed Ginny his invisibility cloak before disillusioning himself. Luna did the same, while around them the Unspeakables simply disappeared because of their cloak's charms.

"When we find him," Harry whispered, "hang back, Ginny. We might have the _Priori Incantatem_ effect with our wands, so be ready for that. It was pretty damned explosive last time. Devon, you and your people just take out the support."

"I'll go snake hunting," Luna said. "Just imagine the boots we could make from a snake that large! Maybe even luggage!"

"One thing to know," Harry said, "he can feel magic just like I can. I'm going to flare my magic to try and mask yours, but I can't promise that's going to work, so be prepared for anything."

With that, Harry pushed his magic out around him, knowing he would be lighting himself up to Voldemort like a Christmas tree. At the same time, though, he searched for any magical signatures, until deeper inside the forest, he felt it—a surge of power frighteningly similar to his. He surged forward ahead of the others, honing in on that feeling of magic.

Voldemort stood on the edge of a small clearing with his Inner Circle around him, at least those that still lived. Bellatrix Lestrange stood at his side, as did the Malfoys. Dolohov stood next to the dark wizard as well. There were others he knew from the files, but there were also some missing. Rowle was killed in his engagement during the Holidays; Adonis himself had killed Rookwood during a botched infiltration attempt into the Department of Mysteries.

All told, there were perhaps ten Death Eaters around Voldemort. However, as Harry felt Anti-Apparition wards close in a dome around them, he knew there would be no retreat. "You cannot hide from me, Harry Potter," Voldemort said.

Harry let his disillusionment charm drop and landed, shrinking his broom casually, while inside his heart thudded wildly. "Tom," he said with a nod. "How's Nagini?"

"Safe," Voldemort said.

In the distance, they heard a roar like a train and turned to see a pillar of white-hot fire which lasted only a little while. A moment later a young, female voice cried out, "Oh, I'm going to love my new boots!"

"Hmm," Harry said with a smile, "that would be Nagini. And that, Tom, was your last Horcrux."

The dark wizard stared, eyes wide. "You lie."

"Well, how about I kill you and we find out?" Harry said, before adding a split second later, "_Avada Kedavra!"_

As stunned as he was, Voldemort was nothing if not brilliant. He responded not with a shield, but a conjured block of glass which shattered before the spell. He then banished the jagged shards of glass at Harry, while with astonishing speed casting killing curses to either side.

Harry rolled to the right side and cast his own killing curse, and just like in the cemetery two years ago, their spells collapsed with a massive explosion. Fortunately, Harry was expecting this and ducked down.

Voldemort also did not seem surprised and remained unaffected. However, his followers were blown off their feet by the explosion, and it was at that moment that Williamson's people struck.

Still disillusioned, the Unspeakables pounced from their brooms, casting killing curses without hesitation. Bellatrix managed a scream before she died, while Lucius simply collapsed. Dolohov somehow managed to conjure a brick shield for himself and spun away, while another fell dead as well.

Roaring his rage, Voldemort slashed his wand out in a wide-area stunner, but Harry responded with an equally wide-area shield. Against a point attack, it would not have worked, but against a diffused attack such as that, it not only blocked the stunners, it engaged the wands again, causing another _priori_ explosion.

With another angry roar, Voldemort summoned Malfoy's wand, while Narcissa scrambled away in terror, one hand cradling her stomach protectively. With this new wand, he cast another killing curse.

Unsure of what would happen, Harry spun away and cast his own. The magic spells made a strange fizzing sound as they washed through each other, but with Voldemort's magic channelled through a different wand, it altered the magic enough that they no longer clashed.

This meant Voldemort had to dodge Harry's curse as well. He angrily slipped his own wand into the pocket of his black robe, while gripping his new wand tightly. "At last, we can finish this, Harry," he said. "Are you ready to die?"

"Are you?"

Voldemort struck first, and Harry responded, and in a second he found himself engaged in the hardest fight he had ever experienced.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

"Ron, watch out!" Hermione screamed in horror.

The Death Eater appeared just inches behind the youngest Weasley son, a curse on his lips. Ron tried to spin around but tripped in the process. Faye Dunbar was already down, and Hermione was out of position. "_Avada…!"_

The dark wizard did not get to finish as the Creevey brothers dove on him from behind, taking out his knees at the joint. Hermione, seeing her chance, shouted "_Reducto_!" and sent the spell right underneath the man's chin. His head popped like a melon, spraying the wall behind him in red-gray matter.

Hermione stared in shock at what she did. "Oh God," she whispered. "I'm going to be sick."

"Sick up later!" Ron said. "Come on, reform!"

"What about Faye?" Colin asked.

"Hermione, stasis charm!"

Still shaking, but grateful for direction, she cast the stasis charm on her roommate. Around them, a team of Hit Wizards was playing Apparition tag with a larger number of Death Eaters, who at the moment seemed to think the children weren't worthy targets.

Their mistake—Hermione knew how to cast an Anti-Apparition jinx, and did so in the middle of the hall. Immediately a Death Eater popped into existence, looking around with her confused expression lost behind her mask. Ron didn't hesitate and cast his strongest blasting curse the moment she appeared.

It caught the woman by surprise, blowing her wand arm off and throwing her against the far wall, where she screamed. The next one caught was a Hit Wizard—Hermione summoned the man out of the way just as the Death Eater pursuing him got caught. The Hit Wizard, with a grin and wink at the students, spun about, casting a complex, silent curse that struck the Death Eater in the chest. The man fell over, clawing at his chest few a moments before going still.

"You one of Potter's group?" the man asked.

"Yes," Ron said.

"Right, lost my team. Mind if I hang out!"

"The more the merrier," Colin said with a happy smile a moment before the Killing Curse struck his head from the side. Hermione just happened to be looking right into his eyes when the green light ripped the life from them.

The Hit Wizard responded with instant violence, quickly killing the Death Eater, while Hermione watched as Dennis caught his brother's body mid-fall. "Colin!" the boy screamed. "Colin!"

Hermione's tears stung, even as she spun around and conjured a shield to stop a black curse coming toward her. Ron, seeing her shield, spun around and shouted, _"Expulso!"_

The Death Eater exploded in a shower of pulp. Blood-stained and filthy from grime and plaster from exploded walls, he looked Hermione in the eye and said, "Nobody curses my girl."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Narcissa ran, fighting back tears of rage and frustration. Lucius was dead—her entire family was dead, and it was all Potter's fault. Only precious Scorpius had any hope for the future. As heavy as her grief was, so to was her hope and determination. She would raise her son to be a true champion of nobility and magic. He would be a Pureblood among Purebloods, and a wizard to make even the Dark Lord take note.

"Oh my little Scorpius," she said, "you shall make your father proud!"

She continued to rub her stomach as she ran, until without warning a silent _Expelliarmus_ plucked her wand from her fingers and brought it spinning through the air to stop in a disillusioned hand. A moment later the figure undid the charm to reveal a girl of fifteen, with stringy blonde hair and distant gray-blue eyes. She smiled at Narcissa, and the expression reminded her of her Lord's smile.

"Hello, Mrs. Malfoy," Luna said. "How are you this evening?"

"You can't harm me!" Narcissa said, holding out a hand to stop the girl. "I'm pregnant!"

"And I'm psychopathic," Luna said happily. "Did you know that your son cast the entrails-expelling curse at me? While it was painful, it was not nearly as painful as I thought it would be, at least not at first. It turns out that you don't have many nerve clusters inside your intestines. The pain came after, and it was quite intense, I assure you."

"You can't harm me!" Narcissa said, tears streaming down her face. "You would be murdering an unborn child."

"If I were bothered by such things," Luna said, "I would point out to you that the unborn child in question would be a Malfoy. I have no doubt that you would raise the child to be just like Draco, or your dear husband Lucius. And that, someday, a girl like me, only likely one without a severe anti-social disorder, will likely get the pleasure of being raped or cursed by him. Therefore his death at this juncture would actually relieve him of the pain of my having to later hunt him down and kill him, and relieve all of his potential victims of the horrors he would inflict on them. I would point this out, if in fact I cared about such things."

Luna took a step forward, her distant smile becoming immediate and feral. "However, I don't care about such things. I owe the Malfoy family a gift. And I have come to give it to you. You should be grateful. This way, you will get to see your unborn child before you die ... _Aesuomk'ak Aep T'akh."_

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Adonis pushed with every ounce of magic he had, draining his magical core to its very limit, until with a sudden snap the panel folded in half.

For a moment, relief and exhaustion stole the strength from him necessary to even lift his head, so he lay in the ventilation shaft unmoving for a long moment, breathing heavily. When he had his breath back, he continued crawling forward past the warded panel, into the Ministry of Magic proper. When he came to the first vent, he blew it open and with his wand and dropped down to the upper level of the ministry.

He heard distant screams and looked up to see most of the Ministry Workers gathered around the fountain. He walked quickly toward them. "Is Minister Bones here?"

"Infirmary!" a voice called. The speaker stepped forward—it was Auror Proudfoot. "That bastard Robards got them into the Ministry. A bomb that went off in the courtroom damn near killed her. We took Robards and his group out later. We have about two hundred Aurors and Hit Wizards just sitting around."

"Not for long," Adonis said. "I have the Ministry safety key. I'm going to release the wards. Proudfoot, gather your people and get ready to go to Hogwarts. It's under attack. Last I heard, their wards were down so you should be able to Apparate directly."

"About damned time," Proudfoot said viciously.

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**Author's Note**: Special thanks to Teufeul1987, JR, and Miles for beta reading. As always, they make these chapters better than they could ever otherwise be.


	60. Gods Among Men

A/N: And this is it. Thank you all for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.

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**Chapter Sixty: Gods Amongst Men**

Harry skipped away from the curse, favouring one leg. He was fairly sure if not for his dragon-hide armour he would be dead twice over. Across the charred clearing, Voldemort glared, bleeding from his left arm.

Harry felt certain that that his Unspeakable support group was either dead or seriously wounded, and hoped to Merlin that Ginny had the sense to get out. The clearing was no longer ringed by trees, it was surrounded by charred lumber and ground burnt so hot it was glassy in some areas. Never in his life would he have believed himself capable of what he had done.

But it still wasn't enough.

"You have come far, Harry," Voldemort said in a surprisingly casual tone. "Lovegood trained you well."

_So he knew all along_. "Let me guess, he trained you too?"

Voldemort laughed. "I have ten years on the fool," he said. "No, I trained with far better wizards than him."

"And yet here we are," Harry said. The anger and fear was gone; his heart beat evenly. All he felt was determination. All he saw was his opponent; all he sensed was magic. Though he could not defeat Voldemort in a straight duel, the Dark Lord had not bested him either.

"Do you honestly think you're winning, Harry?" Voldemort asked.

"Do you?"

Wordlessly, a nearby tree exploded behind Voldemort, but not with fire. Rather, it was as if a terrible force ripped it apart into a storm of arrows that flew at Harry like bullets. Harry transfigured the ground into a brick wall, disillusioned the last of his explosive discs and threw it, while rolling to the side and casting a chain of curses while the disc was still in the air.

Voldemort casually swatted the curses away, only at the last minute sensing the magic of the disk's runes. He cast a shield just as the disc exploded. Once more magic and physics collided. The shield kept the flame and shrapnel from Voldemort's body, but the explosive force impacting against his magic tossed him off his feet.

Harry did not hesitate and charged forward as fast as his hastily repaired leg would allow, casting with all his power from his wand. Killing curses and blasting curses came in waves directly at the fallen Dark Lord in what both men knew was an end game gambit. Voldemort desperately conjured a wall, rolled back to his feet and screamed.

The wildly uncontrolled blast of magic caught Harry completely off guard. He felt no pain, but a moment of surprised confusion when he found himself flying through the air, only to be followed by the stunning, shocking impact of the ground against his head and back. He felt for his primary wand, and realized with shock that it was gone.

He tried to stand, but he couldn't. He didn't think his back was broken—he could feel his feet. But he was hurt and hurt badly.

Voldemort stumbled into the clearing, bleeding from dozens of cuts from where Harry's curses blew apart his conjured wall. He moved drunkenly, and Harry realized that the outburst had exhausted even Voldemort's near inexhaustible magic.

"You foolish boy," the dark wizard said as he approached. "We are gods amongst men, you and I. Do you think those keepers of yours will ever let you live as you wish? You are their slave, you who should be their lord and master!"

"I never wanted to be a master or a lord," Harry said, startled at how broken his voice sounded. "Everything I ever wanted I found already, and you'll never have it."

"I suppose you mean your precious wife," Tom said, leering. "Love is an illusion, my young fool. A lie the Light tells to make you feel better while they pull the shackles tighter."

"No," Harry whispered, "it's a power you will never know." He struck without warning, not using his wand. Without moving, he ploughed into Voldemort's mind.

The Dark Lord staggered back, shocked at the power and sheer gall of the mental invasion, and fought with all his might to eject Harry.

"_Snakey boy! Snakey boy! Hiss at it some more, snakey boy!"_ _The Muggle boys laughed as they pummelled the six-year-old boy in the drab, arid garden of the orphanage. The largest, a blond boy with a torn ear lobe, hit Tom in the stomach, while the others hit his head. _

A blur.

_The same blond boy, three years older now, is screaming in the cave while a young Tom Riddle watches. He screams as the sea snakes bite him again and again, while Anne Dundee sits in paralyzed horror, weeping. "I can make you hurt," Tom said to her. "If you ever tell, I'll make you hurt."_

A blur.

_Tom Riddle hears the sorting hat whisper to him in Parseltongue. He is the Heir. He is not Tom Riddle, the no-name orphan. He is a wizard of the highest pedigree, and someday he will prove it._

A blur.

_The basilisk rises above him, powerful and beautiful, its eyes lidded behind a membrane that protects him from its terrible gaze. _ _It bows its massive head to him, tasting his scent with a forked tongue almost as large as he is. _

A blur, becoming white at the edges.

_A teenager sits on the edge of his bed, naked, his head in his hands. Next to him, a girl is slowly pulling on her own knickers. "It's okay, Tom," she is saying. "It happens to everyone once in a while. I had a lovely time, and I'd be willing to try again."_

_The young man looks up, smiling at her, but the expression never reaches his eyes. In those eyes burns rage that something so _common_ should happen to him. She does not condemn herself because of his inability to satisfy her—she condemns herself with her words of comfort. _

_He is not like everyone. "I'd like that," he lies to her, and she is too blinded by his handsomeness and charm to see. "The girls' bathroom on the third floor, tomorrow night?"_

_She leans down, with her brassiere still undone so that her small breasts hang down, and kisses him. "I look forward to it. Night, Tom."_

"_Good night, Myrtle."_

The blur burns white, and in the distance Harry hears Voldemort's angry voice ordering him out.

_A handsome man, still in his late teens, stands in the hallway of a worn but once elegant home. Before him an older couple and their middle-aged son stand staring at him in a combination of fear, consternation, and disgust._

"_You are no son of mine," the middle-aged man says. "That…that…monstrous whore of a woman was a liar and a thief. I would never sully myself with the likes of her."_

_The handsome young man frowns. "She was the last in an ancient and noble line. If my blood is tainted, it is because she sullied herself with _you_, and I have come to erase the taint. Good bye, father. _Avada Kedavra!"

Harry's head bounced back painfully against the charred ground as Voldemort finally ejected him from his mind. "Damn you!" the dark wizard shouted, stumbling and falling tiredly to his knees. "Damn you, Potter! Don't you see? They made you! Just like they made me! I am what I am because they made me this way! You are Dumbledore's pawn just like I am!"

"You made your own choices, Tom," Harry said, coughing painfully. "And you'll pay the consequences for those choices."

Without even both trying to hide the motion, Harry removed his spare wand from its holster under his left sleeve. Voldemort's eyes widened and he raised a shield, but as it turned out, not because of Harry. A second after he raised his shield, two powerful blasting curses struck the shield, one from either side. Harry turned his head, risking pain, and saw a charred and burned Ginny on one side, and a soot-covered, limping Luna on the other. Both girls were casting continuous chains of offensive spells, forcing the magically exhausted Voldemort to maintain the shield on his knees.

"Good bye, Tom Riddle," Harry said. "_Avada Kedavra."_

The green spell struck the centre of his chest and sent him sliding back over the charred ground. Harry let his arm drop, feeling his own magical exhaustion. He could not even sense Ginny as she collapsed on the ground next to him. "Are you hurt?" she said, her voice hoarse.

"Yeah," he said. "You?"

"That fire blast right after you two started knocked me out of the sky," she admitted. "I just woke up a few minutes ago. I think my leg is broken, and maybe a rib or two."

"Me too," Luna whispered. Her voice sounded worse than Ginny's, and at a glance Harry could see bruising around her neck. "Williamson and his people are dead. They were too close."

"He was a good man," Ginny said. "His poor wife." She sniffed, but did not cry. "Harry, can you move?"

"No," he said. "My back's not broken, I don't think, but I'm hurt badly."

"I'm going to place you in stasis," Ginny said, "and then petrify you to move you. We have our brooms. We'll get you to safety."

"Okay ... Gin?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

"Love you too," Gin said.

"I don't love you, per se," Luna admitted. "But I do greatly enjoy having sex with you, so please do get better soon."

"Luna, don't make me laugh. It hurts when I laugh."

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Daniel Proudfoot swept into the battle at the front of a force of Hit Wizards, Aurors and volunteers like a plague upon the Death Eaters. The defending forces, stretched to the breaking point by sheer numbers, cheered loudly at the reinforcements. Students fought side-by-side with professors, Hit Wizards and Aurors as the Headmistress and staff were able to re-establish the Anti-Apparition wards across the castle.

Suddenly Death Eaters lost their mobility and were forced to fight in the halls against much stiffer resistance than they ever expected. With the surge of additional support, even given the fact they had superior numbers, the Death Eaters panicked and tried to escape.

Unfortunately, the bridge leading into the Forbidden Forest was destroyed, and the main bridge was where Proudfoot's people were pouring in. So the frightened and disorganized witches and wizards of Voldemort's armies ran to the first year's entrance, hoping to steal a boat or a broom.

Instead, they met Rubeus Hagrid, Professor of Care of Magical Creatures, Keeper of Keys, and half-giant, and his pet dog Fluffy. Fluffy stood fifteen feet tall at the shoulders and had three rather large heads, all the better to eat those terrified Death Eaters with.

Behind them came the defenders and reinforcements, cursing relentlessly, killing without mercy. Finally, realizing they had no hope, the survivors threw down their wands and raised their hands. Of the fifteen hundred wizards who attacked Hogwarts, barely a third survived.

The Battle of Hogwarts at last came to an end, just as the sun was setting.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

Harry woke up to phoenix song and a feeling of contentment. He opened his eyes and saw not the roof of the hospital wing, but instead the ceiling of their quarters next to Gryffindor tower. He looked up and saw Fawkes roosting on the headboard. Ginny lay on his right, snuggled up so tightly to him he had difficulty telling where her body ended and his began. On his other side, Luna laid facing away from him, her cute bum pushed up against his thigh.

"Fawkes," Harry whispered. "Are you why I feel so good?"

The bird trilled an affirmation, before flying between the curtains of their bed to a stand Harry placed by Ginny's vanity. The bird roosted there, still crooning gently.

Though he felt good on the inside, on the outside he felt grimy, and realized he was still in bits and pieces of his shredded armour. He looked and saw that Ginny and Luna were also still in their armour as well; as worn and damaged as his own.

Gently, trying not to wake them, he wiggled his way out of bed. The moment he tried to stand, his knees buckled and he barely caught himself before falling. The feeling of contentment did not translate into strength—he felt as weak as when Snape poisoned him.

Still, he had strength enough to strip out of his tattered armour and wander into the bath. The three of them had expanded it almost on their first night, since their bathing ritual had become a habit the previous year. He did not have the magical strength to even conjure water, so instead he turned the spigot and climbed in, settling down as the near scalding hot water began to rise up around him.

It did not surprise him when Ginny stepped into the bathroom, already nude. He could not see any cuts or bruises, but by the sheer amount of dried blood, he knew she had been hurt badly as well. "Fawkes?" he said. His voice sounded hoarse, but better than before.

"There are advantages to having a phoenix," she said. "When the healers realized you were bonded to a phoenix, they let Luna and I bring you back here so Fawkes could heal us. You did break your back, you know, but only the bone, no nerve damage."

She climbed into the tub and positioned herself between his legs so she could lean back against him. "Luna coming?" Harry asked.

"No, I made her take her full potion suite," Ginny said. "She…she started to execute the prisoners. Zeus stopped her, thank Merlin, but we realized that she was still in fight mode, so we dosed her up well." She shivered, leaned forward, and started to weep.

"Ginny?"

"Colin's dead," she whispered. "So are Faye Dunbar, and Romilda Vane. The Hit Wizards and Aurors did their best to protect the students, but they couldn't save everyone. Ernie McMillan died, and Joseph Finklestein—remember the Ravenclaw in our Arithmancy class? Forty two students died. Forty two."

"How many Hit Wizards and Aurors?" Harry asked.

"Two hundred all together ... and another fifty civilian volunteers. I heard Zeus talking with Amanda about whether we even had a sustainable population any more. So many dead…"

Fawkes flew into the bathroom, and once again began crooning to the pair. Ginny leaned back against Harry as the water continued to bathe them. Fawkes hopped across the floor until he stood beside the tub. Still crooning, the magical bird leaned over and wept two tears into the water.

Almost immediately the scalding hot water seemed to penetrate even deeper into their bodies, and with a start Harry realized that the phoenix's magic was acting like a natural purification ritual. He felt the dark residual magic from his curses begin to melt away within him, leaving nothing but warmth and the comfort of his life.

"I heard a little, what he said at the end," Ginny said. "That you two were so alike."

"On the surface, maybe," Harry said. "Remember when they told us Dumbledore thought the power in the prophecy was the power of love?"

Ginny nodded without speaking, and brought his hand up across her chest.

"I wonder sometimes if he was right," Harry said. "I used Legilimency on him in the end, just desperate to buy myself time if nothing else. I don't think, in his entire life, he ever knew what love was. He had an opportunity with Myrtle, believe it or not, but it was too late for him by then, and so she died."

"Do you feel sorry for him?"

Harry thought about it, and finally shook his head. "No. Look at me, Ginny. Look at us. How many wizards or creatures did we kill between just in this battle alone? We are killers, you and I, and yet I have the love of a phoenix who can weep my darkness away, and the love of a woman who came and swept my fears and insecurities away."

"And the affection of a psychopath, for what that's worth," Ginny said.

Harry laughed. "Admit it, having a third adds something to the dynamic, doesn't it?"

Ginny wiggled a little against him, and then sighed. "Yeah, it does. It helps to know that I'm the one you love most. I don't feel insecure because I know you'll always put me first."

"Always," Harry promised. "Be a dear and turn off the water?"

She did so, and the two simply sat in the tub, soaking up the heat, while their murderous lover slept in the arms of her potions in the next room.

~~Unspeakable~~

~~Unspeakable~~

When they emerged from their quarters that night for dinner, it was to a terribly damaged castle. The astronomy tower had collapsed entirely, and almost half the passages were un-passable. The castle elves helped transport the wounded to St. Mungo's, while the dead were in the Hospital Wing, awaiting identification before cremation.

The one area that was not damaged was the Great Hall. Because of the local wards the staff cast to protect the younger students, the Great Hall came through the battle unscathed, and within it Harry and Ginny found Aurors, Hit Wizards, parents and staff eating side by side with students. When Harry stepped through, a startled hush ran through the entire room as everyone turned to look at him.

Ron and Hermione were sitting at the nearest edge of the Gryffindor table, surrounded by Weasleys. George bore a rather large scar on his cheek, and it looked like Bill had been mauled, but otherwise the family was relatively unharmed. When Hermione saw him, she rose to her feet and then shot like a bullet into his arms.

"I saw you, when they brought you in," she whispered. "And for a moment, I thought you were dead."

"I'm not, Hermione," he assured her. "How could I die, when I have so much to live for?"

Hermione backed away, wiping her eyes, before she hugged Ginny next. Behind her, the entire Weasley family stood and began clapping. Moments later the entire hall followed suit, until the hall resounded with the sound of wild applause. Ginny snuggled next to Harry, while Hermione and Ron stood to his other side, embracing, and the four simply stood and let the applause wash over them.

"Is it over, Harry?" Hermione said, having to raise her voice over the din.

Harry looked at her, then to the beautiful woman snuggled into his side, and finally grinned. "Hell no, it's just getting started!"

Epilogue: Three Years Later 

It was supposed to be a rapid sting operation in Devonshire. Someone was selling magically enchanted Muggle Weaponry, in clear violation of several British and ICW accords. Of course, the Unspeakables had a whole cache of such weapons, but they were most definitely not for public consumption.

Worse yet, they believed it was an insider within the Department of Mysteries making the deals.

The sting operation incorporated both elements of the Muggle Security Services, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and the Unspeakables, since both the magical and non-magical ministries agreed it was a serious situation. Senior Unspeakables Apollo and Artemis were assigned for the actual sting operation once the intelligence confirmed where the delivery of the weapons would take place.

Harry and Ginny waited under the disillusionment charms of their cloaks with four other agents, and Luna as their control, floating on brooms in the rafters of the warehouse ceiling. Below them, the buyers were trying to make themselves feel more secure by walking the perimeter around their very nice automobiles. They were all Muggle weapons dealers from Serbia.

The dealers arrived with pops—already violating the International Statute of Secrecy. The Serbs pulled their weapons and shouted in alarm at a display of the impossible. The leader of the Magicals snorted. "Don't get your panties in a twist, you ugly cunts."

Harry tried to hide his shock—he recognized that voice, if not the face. It was the Snorkack Hunter! Without his robes on, the Hunter proved to be a man in his early thirties with a brutally shaved head, a dragon's tooth earring in his left ear, wearing dragon leather pants and a black shirt. The others behind him were dressed equally flamboyantly.

Without further warning, Harry set off the Anti-Apparition wards on the whole building, while Ginny and the rest of his team sealed the door. Hunter looked up, sensing the magic. "Shit, boys, we got company!"

Harry unleashed his broad-area stunner, taking out all the Muggles in one fell swoop. The Magicals, however, proved more resilient. Hunter raised a powerful shield, and then pulled an Uzi charmed almost the same as what Krum used in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, and just started firing into the ceiling.

It was an effective tactic, since it required the Unspeakables to shield and give away their positions. Unfortunately for the weapons dealers, Harry and his team were the best. They dropped down with cushioning charms and engaged the wizard criminals in close quarter combat. Harry poured magic into every blow, snapping his opponent's arms when the man tried to block his kick, and then downing him with a wandless stunner.

Ginny and the others were making similar progress with the other Magicals. The exception, and it was a surprise since she was technically not supposed to engage in combat except as a last resort, was Luna and her opponent. She and the Hunter were fighting, and it was possibly the dirtiest fight Harry had ever seen.

Their cutting curses were shallow enough to do little more than cut away clothes, but in his eyes Luna wielded her wand like a scalpel, cutting away the Hunter's shirt to reveal a broad, well muscled and rather hairy chest. Perhaps because of her own actions, Hunter did the same, cutting away her Unspeakable cloak. Only, unlike most Unspeakables, Luna did not believe in wearing anything else underneath. It was a peculiarity Harry and Ginny were accustomed to, and it came in handy since combat made her randy.

However, it shocked Hunter when his cutting curse revealed a female breast under the cloak. Suddenly she cart wheeled, and in doing so caused her robe to flip up in a spectacular show of her nethers. "Bloody 'ell," Hunter managed to say, right before she brought both feet down on his face.

He staggered back and then fell on his arse, momentarily stunned by the blow. Luna landed on her feet and slashed her wand in a crossing pattern. Ginny felt her cheeks burn as their friend essentially cut away the man's pants to show he was going commando, and was very, very well endowed.

Luna stepped over him, her cut Unspeakable gown hanging about in such a way as to reveal one breast, and a stretch of her long, pale leg. "What's your name!" she demanded. For whatever reason, she'd allowed the voice filtering charm to drop so that she spoke with her own voice.

"Rolf Scamander!" the man said angrily. "And I ain't talking to…bloody shite what are you doing, woman?"

Luna pulled her cloak up around her waist, completely ignoring the stunned Unspeakables around her, and squatted down over the stunned Scamander. She pulled her hood back, showing her face, and then reared back and punched him, hard.

He punched her back without hesitation. She licked the blood from her lip, and said, "Fuck me now, please."

"You're a right crazy slag, now, aren't you?"

"Yes, yes I am! Fuck me now, you buggering gobshite!" She mounted him while cursing, and he cursed right back as pulled her down, and after a few minutes of frenzied bouncing, they finished.

Luna popped right back off, and said, "Don't move or I'll kill you." She said it in her normal, matter-of-fact tone before talking over to a stunned Harry and Ginny. "Well, it has been fun, but Rolf Scamander has a much larger penis than you, Harry. This is not to say that you are small by any means. For your size you are actually far above average. But Rolf's pecker is almost nine inches long and feels quite pleasant. In addition, I think we are a much better overall match. So, good bye. Don't try to stop us, please. I would feel bad for a moment if I had to hurt you."

She walked back to the still mostly naked Rolf Scamander and said, "I'm Luna Lovegood. You're going to take me back to whatever hole you live in, and you're going to fuck me some more. Right?"

Scamander looked at the stunned, silent Unspeakables, smirked and then flipped them all the bird. "Right out, Luna Lovegood. Let's go have a right good shag, and then we'll talk about business."

"Sex first," Luna ordered, moments before she brought down the Disapparition wards and the two disappeared.

"Harry?" Ginny said, struggling to find her voice, "did Luna just dump us for a weapons smuggler?"

"I think so," Harry said, feeling confused and, if he admitted it to himself, a little hurt. "And what'd she mean, 'For my size!' I'm almost five-eleven now! I'm as tall as Charlie!"

Ginny took her husband's arm, while the rest of the Unspeakables who knew better than to comment on what the Head Unspeakable's daughter just did, went about collecting the Muggles and the evidence, while Ginny patted Harry's shoulder. "Well, didn't Healer Richardson say one time that we couldn't really depend on her?"

"Well, yeah, but I thought we'd be the one dumping her!"

She patted his shoulder again. "I know, but it'll be okay. Besides, there's always Minister Grayson's granddaughter. She's a 99th percentile witch, and you did say that having a third adds something."

Harry leaned in and kissed his wife until both their toes curled, and said, "What was her name again?"

~~fin~~

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**Author's Note**: One last, huge, very special thank you to Teufeul1987, JR, and Miles for beta reading. As always, they make these chapters better than they could ever otherwise be.


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